Ethnic Differences in Bone Mineral Density Were Identified in Chinese American Women
Medicine and Law Weekly, 07/21/2006
Investigators in the United States noted, "While osteoporosis is common among
women of Chinese descent, a readily available bone mineral density (BMD)
referent database for Chinese American women does not exist. Fracture risk
among this population is currently assessed using a Caucasian reference as
well as diagnostic criteria for osteoporosis developed for postmenopausal
Caucasian women. Many studies indicate that there are important racial
differences in skeletal health and fracture risk, an observation that makes
the application of Caucasian data to all groups problematical."
M.D. Walker and colleagues of Columbia University in New York wrote, "This
study was undertaken to establish a BMD referent database in Chinese American
women and to compare it with a Caucasian female database. It is expected that
a race-specific database will be useful in the assessment of bone health for
Chinese American women. Healthy Chinese American women (n=359), ages 20-90,
were recruited. Along with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of the total
hip and lumbar spine, demographic, medical, familial, nutritional, and
behavioral data were obtained."
"The mean and standard deviation for BMD at each site was calculated for each
10-year age group and compared to mean BMD values for Caucasian women supplied
as found in the Hologic DXA instrument," they continued. "Osteoporosis
diagnosis rates for this cohort, calculated with the Caucasian and newly
established Chinese American BMD referent values, were compared with each
other."
The results indicate, "Compared with Caucasian women, Chinese American women
have significantly lower BMD at the lumbar spine, total hip, and femoral neck
across a wide spectrum of age groups. As a consequence, more than one-half of
Chinese American women greater than or equal to50 years of age, who would be
characterized as osteoporotic using a Caucasian referent, would not be
diagnosed as such if a Chinese American referent were utilized."
"Chinese American reference BMD values are significantly lower than those for
Caucasian women," they concluded. "Future studies relating Chinese American
BMD values to fracture risk are necessary in order to determine if ethnic
database-derived T-scores would be more predictive of fracture risk and to
develop meaningful diagnostic criteria for this population."
Walker and colleagues published their study in Osteoporosis International (A
referent bone mineral density database for Chinese American women. Osteoporos
Int, 2006;17(6):878-887).