THE CURRENT ISSUES ON OSTEOPOROSIS AMONG MALE SAUDI ARABIANS

Background and Objectives

Osteoporosis was reported to be common among the Saudi Arabian population. In the last decade there have been no reports related to the male osteoporosis in Saudi Arabian citizens. The objective of this study was to find the hospital-based prevalence of male osteoporosis and the associated diseases.

Methodology

This is a retrospective study between January 2014 and December 2016 in which all patients who were referred for DEXA (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) scan to the radiology department of the King Fahd Hospital of the University, AlKhobar were included. Patient’s demographic data were collected from the medical records. Patients who were younger than 50 and those who had a fragility fracture were excluded from the analysis. From the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS, Siemens AG, Erlangen, Germany) the readings of the DEXA were collected. Associated diseases of the patients were also extracted from the QuadruMed Data Base. The data was entered in the database and analyzed using SPSS Inc. ver-sion 19 and p value of <0.05 was considered significant.

Results

Four hundred and fifty-five patients had a DEXA scan during the study period. Three hundred and seventy-one (81.5%) were ≥50 years. The average was 65.33±9.85 years (range 50–97). On the basis of Spinal T score, 222 (59.8%) were osteoporotic with the Spinal T score of <−3.58±0.88, while, with Hip T score 120 (32.3%) were osteoporotic with T score of <−3.24±0.59. Thirty-six (9.7%) had a normal DEXA of spine and 74(19.9%) of patients had normal DEXA when the Hip T score was taken into consideration. Patients could be divided into 4 groups based on their diseases; they were on treatment for cardiac disease 106 (28.5%), Diabetes mellitus 95 (25.7%), osteoarthritis 141 (38%) and respiratory disease 29 (7.8%). Based on the Spinal T score osteoporosis was observed in 61/106 (57.5%) patients with cardiac disease, 62/95 (65.3%) in diabetics, in osteoarthritis 83/141 (58.9%) and 16/29 (55.1%) in patients with respiratory system diseases. Majority of the patients had vitamin D3 analysis and were most of the patients were in the deficiency range. From 222 (59.83%) patients who were diagnosed to have osteoporosis only 108 (48.64%) were on appropriate treatment for osteoporosis.

Conclusion

This study finds that the prevalence of osteoporosis in Saudi Arabian males is higher than in the western world and has increased in the last decade. The authors believe a more determined effort is needed to lower the screening age for osteoporosis and report the observations. This will allow a consensus to be reached regarding the frequency of osteoporosis in Saudi Arabian males and implement appropriate measures to limit its growth.

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