Early Intervention for Prevention of Osteoporosis

摘要

Osteoporosis is defined as a systemic skeletal disease characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of boen tissue, with a consequent increase in bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture (Consensus Development conference, 1994). An operational definition of osteoporosis by WHO (1994) is a bone mineral density (BMD) level more than 2.5 standard deviations (SD) below the young normal mean which refers to the average peak bone density (achieved at about 30 years of age) of the same population with the same sex. Longitudinal studies have shown that the relative risk of fracture increases by 1.3 for each decrease in bone mass of 1 SD (Hui et al. 1988). Any discussion of primary prevention must focus on measures to improve bone mass.