Prevalence of vertebral fractures in an urban population in Croatia aged fifty and older.

AIM OF THE STUDY: To establish the prevalence of vertebral fractures according to age groups, sex and vertebral level in a sample of a Croatian urban population aged > or =50. We also tried to establish how many people had been diagnosed with osteoporosis by their family physician.

PARTICIPANTS AND

METHODS

Lateral thoracic and lumbar spinal radiographs were obtained in 425 ambulatory people (156 men and 269 women) aged > or =50 and living in the community as a random sample of the City of Zagreb (Croatia) population. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on prior traumatic vertebral fractures and whether the person had been diagnosed with osteoporosis. Vertebral fractures in the population sample were defined using the morphometric method proposed by McCloskey et al., and normal values of the ratios of dimensions in nonfractured vertebrae with the iterative algorithm described by Melton et al.

RESULTS

The prevalence of individuals with vertebral fractures was 11.8% (15.8% of men and 9.7% of women), ranking Zagreb mid-scale among other European cities. The prevalence of individuals with vertebral fractures rose with age. Sixty-nine (1.24%) of 5525 analysed vertebrae had been fractured. The most common fractures were those of lower thoracic and upper lumbar vertebrae. The elderly tend to sustain multiple fractures. Forty-one (9.6%) people had been previously diagnosed as having osteoporosis. Extrapolation to the Croatian population implies that approximately 90,000 men and 77,000 women aged > or =50 have vertebral fractures.

CONCLUSION

Vertebral osteoporotic fractures are common in the Croatian population aged > or =50; however, awareness of osteoporosis appears to be low.