Background: Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterized by low bone mass with a consequent increase in bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture. This problem is expected to reach epidemic proportions by 2050.
Aim: The current study investigates the effect of environmental factors on the development of osteoporosis among urban and rural women and its relation with the dietary habits.
Subjects and methods: This was a cross sectional study that included 400 premenopausal women with regular menses and mean age 38.85±3.11 years where half of them were from urban areas and other half were from rural areas. The studied women were recruited from National Nutrition Institute . All participants underwent medical history taking with focus on reproductive history, drug history, sun exposure, physical activity, coffee consumption, cigarette smoking and history of fractures. In addition, they were all subjected to full examination with anthropometric measures, dietary assessment using 24 hours recall and bone density assessment using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan.
Results: There were significant higher values in the urban sample than that of the rural sample in nutrient analysis of 24-hour recall. However, there was a highly statistically significant difference between rural and urban areas as regard the cause of a previous fracture, the duration of sun exposure. Osteoporosis was diagnosed in 4.5% of the studied women and 27.75% had osteopenia.
Conclusion: No difference in the prevalence of osteoporosis between rural (55.6%) and urban (44.4%), nutrient profile was nearly similar in osteoporotic and non-osteoporotic women, obesity protect from osteoporosis.