[Quality of life of women with low bone mass in postmenopause]

to evaluate the quality of life of patients with osteoporosis and osteopenia followed-up at outpatient clinics specialized in osteoporosis and climacterium and to compare it to that of patients with normal bone mineral density (BMD).

cross-sectional case series, observational study, which intended to analyze the quality of life of women with osteopenia and osteoporosis by the Medical Outcomes Study 36 Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire. We evaluated 124 postmenopausal women divided into three groups: 55 patients with a densitometric diagnosis of osteoporosis, 35 with osteopenia and 34 who presented a normal BMD. The three groups were compared in terms of demographic data, clinical and life style characteristics and the different domains of SF-36.

patients from the osteopenia and normal BMD groups presented lower age (56.7±7.1 and 52.9±5.4 years), greater body mass index (BMI) (28.6±3.7 and 30.9±5.1 kg/m²) and shorter time since menopause (8.4±5.9 and 5.8±4.5 years) than those from the osteoporosis group (61.8±10.1 years, BMI of 25.7±5.3 kg/m², 15.5±7.5 years, respectively; p<0.05). According to SF-36, there was no significant difference between groups concerning the domains, except for the vitality domain, which was found to be superior in the osteoporosis group. Regarding the personal impression about their health, a greater percentage of the patients who considered it to be good was from the osteoporosis group and, of the patients who considered it bad, a smaller percentage belonged to the osteopenia group.

the quality of life was similar in women with osteoporosis and osteopenia when compared to women with normal BMD, except for the vitality domain, which, paradoxically, was superior in patients with osteoporosis.