SUMMARY

This cross-sectional study showed that peak bone mineral density in Vietnamese women is comparable to that in Caucasian women; however, the prevalence of osteoporosis in post-menopausal Vietnamese women was slightly higher than in Caucasian women. The age of achieving peak bone mass in Vietnamese women was between 26 and 30 years. INTRODUCTION: While peak bone mass and its determinants have been well-documented in Caucasian populations, little has been studied in Asian populations. The present study was designed to estimate the peak bone mineral density (BMD), age of its attainment, and to examine the prevalence of osteoporosis in Vietnamese women aged 50+. METHODS: The study was designed as a cross-sectional study with 328 women aged between 10 and 65 years (average age: 41) who were randomly selected from two districts around Hanoi city according to a stratified sampling scheme. BMD at the lumbar spine, femoral neck and total hip was measured by a DXA instrument (GE Lunar Prodigy, WI, USA). BMD was modeled as a cubic function of age, from which peak BMD and age at peak BMD were estimated. Bootstrap method was utilized to estimate the 95% confidence interval of peak BMD and age at peak BMD. From the peak BMD, T-score was calculated for each woman, and using the World Health Organization criteria, any woman with femoral neck BMD T-score </= -2.5 was classified as having osteoporosis. RESULTS: Peak BMD was estimated at 1.16 g/cm(2) (standard deviation [SD]: 0.13 g/cm(2)) at the lumbar spine, 1.02 g/cm(2) (SD 0.12) at the total hip, and 0.94 g/cm(2) (SD 0.11) at the femoral neck. In the cubic polynomial model, the age at peak BMD was estimated to range between 27 and 29 years. The prevalence of osteoporosis among those aged between 50 and 65 years was 23%. This prevalence was higher than in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Caucasian populations. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that although the peak BMD in Vietnamese women is comparable to, the prevalence of osteoporosis is higher than, in some other Asian and Caucasian women. It seems that osteoporosis is an important public health burden in Vietnam.