Nutritional risk factors for postmenopausal osteoporosis

Abstract

Background: Osteoporosis is a bone disease that combines both a decrease in bone density and its internal architecture changes. Nutrition is one of the major determinants of osteoporosis.

Aim: The purpose of our study was to identify nutritional risk factors of osteoporosis of two groups of osteoporotic women and witnesses.

Methods: We conducted a comparative cross-sectional study including 60 postmenopausal women and screening for osteoporosis by a bone densitometry, recruited the outpatient service of Rheumatology of the Institute KASSAB.

Results: We have identified excessive supply of saturated fatty acids (SFA) in the osteoporotic compared with controls (13.27% vs 10.23%, p= 0.002) and an inadequate intake of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) (12.6% vs 16.16%, p=0.012).

A low calcium intake is another factor of risk of osteoporosis (574.27 ± 336.9 mg/day vs 782.45 ± 340.54 mg/day; p= 0.021). This is explained by the low consumption of milk and milk products objectified in the osteoporotic group (p= 0.001). We also found a negative relationship between inadequate intakes of potassium and osteoporosis (2241.55 ±1049.85 mg/day vs 2988.17 ± 1146.52 mg/day; p= 0.011). This may be due to the low consumption in fruit and vegetables, sources of potassium, found in the osteoporotic group (p= 0.003).

We found a significant increase in the consumption of the VVPO group in the osteoporotic toward women witness (2.23 ± 0.99 number of times/day vs 1.67 ± 0.76 number of times/day; p= 0.019). A high consumption of coffee appears also as a risk factor since the osteoporotic group consume almost twice than controls (p= 0.002).

Conclusion: Nutritional risk factors of osteoporosis are all the most important that they are editable and can take their place in a prevention of public health policy.

Keywords: Osteoporosis; Menopause; Risk factors; Nutrition