Osteoporosis Among The inhabitance of Jenin District

Osteoporosis is a common metabolic bone disease; it is a major cause of illness, fractures and death in adults. The present study aimed at evaluating the status of this disease and tried to search for possible associated risk factors among the inhabitants of Jenin district, northern Palestine. To achieve our aims a total of 165 subjects (69M / 96F, aged 25-75) suffering from bone fractures, referrals of the orthopedic clinic at Jenin Hospital, were interviewed and data regarding their health status, family history of disease, physical activities and other related data was collected in a specially designed questionnaire. The findings among our study population showed that the highest rate of fractures occurred in spine (21.8%), followed by fractures of the hip (16.4%), wrist (14.5%) and ribs (10.9%). With respect to gender differences, females showed a higher frequency (60% of total fractures) compared to males. In general, a noticeable increase in fracture frequency was observed with increasing age. It was also found that with advanced age, there is a clear tendency towards loss of heights, while weight variations did not show any significant changes. Data on family history for affected patients seems to indicate that family history is a risk factor as all study population subjects were found to have sibs and parents with history of fractures at various sites. An interesting finding was the finding of more spine and hip fractures among mothers and sisters of patients, while fathers and brothers seems to show much higher frequency in wrist fractures. The finding with respect of secondary osteoporotic diseases among our study population showed that chronic rheumatic diseases were the most common (25.5%), followed by kidney related diseases (21.8%) and malabsorption (12.7%). Other secondary osteoporotic diseases related to hypo and hyper thyroidism and parathyroidism were represented by very small percentages. Early menarche and menopausal age seems to be risk factors for developing osteoporosis. The findings of the current study showed that around 50% of the female population were with early menopause and around 40% had early menarche. This finding partially explains the observed discrepancy in fracture occurrence among males and females in our population. Data on physical activity practices among study population seems to indicate that the majority of the patients have limited activities, thus rendering this group to be at high risk of developing osteoporosis. Our findings with respect to calcium rich diets indicates that the studied population have limited use of such diets (hard and soft cheese and milk; calcium supplementation) especially at ages below 25 years of age. Lack of proper balance diet especially at this age is a well-known risk factor of osteoporosis. Findings on milk consumption also indicate that the majority of the studied population consume limited amounts of milk at all stages of life, a situation which also considered as a risk of osteoporotic disease. The study also paid attention to other factor related to causes of osteoporosis such as oestrogen intake by females at menopausal age, breast feeding, and use of caffeine, soft drinks and others.