Osteoporosis is one of the most important health problems in modern society affecting men and women. The prevalence of male osteoporosis in Bulgaria is unknown.
Objective:
To determine the prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis at the spine and hip in a male cohort referred for bone density testing.
Subjects and methods:
The study included 200 consecutive Bulgarian men (age 25–87 years) free from major risk factors for osteoporosis. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at the lumbar spine in all participants and left hip in 100 of the participants. T-scores were calculated from Hologic provided and NHANES III male reference data.
Results:
Lumbar spine BMD decreased from a peak of 0.939 ± 0.132 at age 35–44 years and to 0.875 ± 0.227 g/cm2 over the age of 70 years. Total hip BMD changed from 0.813 ± 0.215 at age 20–44 years to 0.679 ± 0.112 g/cm2 over the age of 75 years. Spinal T-scores therefore showed a very slow decline with age in contrast to total hip and proximal femur. In men aged over 50 years the mean prevalence of osteoporosis at the spine was 24.6%, compared with 5.9% at the total hip and 9.4% at the femoral neck. At the spinal site 40.2% had normal BMD, compared with 52.9% at the total hip and 40.0% at the femoral neck.
Conclusions:
We found a high prevalence of spinal osteoporosis in Bulgarian men.
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