Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the distribution of bone density according to age and the prevalence rate of osteoporosis I 613, middle-aged women who visited Saint Bundo Hospital in Pusan from June to December, 1997. Mean bone density of lumbar spine(L2L4), and femoral neck of 50-59 years of age was significantly lower than those of 40-49 years of age(p<0.05). At the 60years of age, mean bone density of two sites were less than those of 50-59 years of age. Mean bone density of lumbar spine tin the group of sixties were 20.7% lower than that of group aged under 40 ; For femoral neck, women in their sixties showed 22.6% lower density compared to the women aged under forty. Bone density of ward's triangle of sixties were the least, which was 34.2% lower than that of group aged under 40. Bone density in lumbar spine, femoral neck, trochanter and ward's triangle correlates strongly with each other(p<0.001). The proportion of osteoporosis was 3.6% in the group of forties, 10.9% in the group of fifties and 33.8% for the group aged over 60, which was assessed by bone density of lumbar spine. Bone density of lumbar spine, femoral neck and ward's triangle were positively correlated with height, weight and BMI(p<0.001~p<0.01), and weight showed highest correlation with the bone density. Forty-four percent of variation in lumbar spine bone density was explained by age and weight.

• Keywords: osteoporosis; middle aged womwn; age; anthropometric data