Prevalence of vertebral fractures in women and men in the population-based Tromsø Study

Abstract

BackgroundOsteoporotic vertebral fractures are, as the hip fractures, associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Norway has one of the highest reported incidences of hip fractures in the world. Because of methodological challenges, vertebral fractures are not extensively studied. The aim of this population based study was to describe, for the first time, the age- and sex specific occurrence of osteoporotic vertebral fractures in Norway.MethodsData was collected in the Tromso Study, 2007/8 survey. By the use of dual x-ray absorptiometry (GE Lunar Prodigy) vertebral fracture assessments were performed in 2887 women and men aged from 38 to 87 years, in addition to measurements of bone mineral density at the femoral sites. Information on lifestyle was collected through questionnaires. Comparisons between fractures and non-fractures were done sex stratified, by univariate analyses, adjusting for age when relevant.ResultsThe prevalence of vertebral fractures varied from about 3% in the age group below 60 to about 19% in the 70+ group in women, and from 7.5% to about 20% in men, with an overall prevalence of 11.8% in women and 13.8% in men (p = 0.07). Among those with fractures, only one fracture was the most common; two and more fractures were present in approximately 30% of the cases. Fractures were seen from the fourth lumbar to the fifth thoracic vertebrae, most common between first lumbar and sixth thoracic vertebrae. The most common type of fracture was the wedge type in both sexes. Bone mineral density at the hip differed significantly according to type of fracture, being highest in those with wedge fractures and lowest in those with compression fractures.ConclusionsThe prevalence of vertebral fractures increased by age in women and men, but the overall prevalence was lower than expected, considering the high prevalence of hip and forearm fractures in Norway. In both sexes, the wedge type was the fracture type most frequently observed and most common in the thoracic region.

Low clinical relevance of a prevalent vertebral fracture in elderly men—the MrOs Sweden study

“…The European Vertebral Osteoporosis Study suggests that 12% of men and women aged 50-80 years have a radiographic vertebral fracture, with higher prevalence found in higher ages [7]. Other reports support an increasing prevalence by aging in both genders [8][9][10]. However, although the prevalence seems to be higher in young adult men than in young adult women [11], incident fractures are more common in old women than in old men [7,12,13].…”

High prevalence of fragility vertebral fractures in patients hospitalised in Internal Medicine Units. Results of the POINT (Prevalence of Osteoporosis in INTernal medicine) study

“…Although the different methods used to assess the presence of radiological vertebral deformities in other studies should be carefully considered, the present results suggest that the prevalence of VFs in this particular clinical setting is probably more elevated than that observed in healthy Caucasian population, which, in large epidemiologic studies [2,3], was estimated to be between 10 and 20% in people aged over 60.…”

“…Large epidemiological studies have been carried out in the general population, and have shown that the prevalence of VFs is high, and increases with age in both sexes [2,3]. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that VFs represent a relevant risk factor for death [4].…”

Frequency, distribution and severity of prevalent osteoporotic vertebral fractures in postmenopausal women

“…However, some limitations include the requirement for highly experienced readers and modest reproducibility between readers, particularly for mild vertebral fractures (7,23). Indeed, the fracture prevalence in the EVOS study dropped to 12.0% after using the McCloskey predictors of fracture risk (2,33). Although the retrospective nature of study prevented the documentation of all possible effectual factors on fracture risk, we found that patients with fractures were slightly older, thinner, and taller than those with no fracture.…”