Prevalence of Osteoporosis in Patients with Distal Radius Fracture from Low-energy Trauma: An Observational Study

Osteoporosis is characterized by low bone mass, leading to enhanced bone fragility. Low-energy fractures of distal radius are related to osteoporosis and is therefore related to increased risk of subsequent hip fractures. The objective of this study was to study the prevalence of osteoporosis in patients with distal radius fracture from low-energy trauma. This will emphasise the need to investigate these patients for osteoporosis and make practitioners should be aware of the possibility of osteoporosis in such patients.

This observational cross-section study evaluated the prevalence of osteoporosis in patients with distal radius fracture from low-energy trauma among patients presenting to tertiary level hospital of Nepal from October 2022 to September 2023. The participants' demographic data, mechanism of injury, BMD values and T-score values were recorded and diagnosis of osteoporosis and osteopenia was made according to WHO diagnostic criteria. Ethical approval was taken from Institutional Review Committee (Reference Number: 079/80-015).

The study involved 96 patients with mean age of 68.27±4.09 years. The mean BMD among the participants was 0.69±0.02 and the mean T-score was -2.75±0.23. Diagnosis of osteoporosis was made in 88 (91.67%) patients and diagnosis of osteopenia was made in 8 (8.33%) patients based on the T-score using the WHO criteria. Of the 88 (91.67%) patients who met the diagnosis of osteoporosis, only 45 (46.88%) patients had started treatment with bisphosphonates for osteoporosis.

We have found a high prevalence of osteoporosis among patients with low-energy distal radius fracture.