Osteoporosis: Is the Prevalence Increasing in Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The objective of this analysis is to report from a teaching hospital in eastern Saudi Arabia hospital based prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of all patients who underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan between January 1, and December 31, 2018, at King Fahd Hospital of the University at Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia. Demographic data of patients, which included age, sex, diabetes mellitus status based on fasting blood sugar, hemoglobin A1C, Vitamin D level, parathormone level, and T score of the neck of femur and lumbar spine was extracted from the Quadrumed patient care system. The data was entered into database and analyzed. RESULTS: Three hundred and one patients had a DXA scan for the year 2018, a jump of 27.2% of requests to diagnose osteoporosis. There were 55 (18.27%) were male and rest females (246). The average age for males was 65.2 ± 10.5 and females 62.9 ± 9.4 years. Using T score of the lumbar spine, 63.6% were osteoporotic in males and 52.8% in females. CONCLUSIONS: The hospital-based study shows that the prevalence of osteoporosis has significantly increased in men to 63.6%, while in postmenopausal women to 58.4%, this is high compared to the earlier reports.