Introduction: Osteoporosis (OP) is a disease with high prevalence and high economic and social cost. This study has aimed to describe risk factors (RF) among women with osteoporosis (OP) treated in primary care (PC) and hospitals (HO).
Material and methods: Cross-sectional, epidemiological and multicenter study, including 194 PC and 186 HO women with OP.
Results: Patients in both groups had equivalent age (age+/-SD 67.6+/-9.8 PC and 67.6+/-10 years HO), and OP severity (-3.0+/-0.8 PC vs -3.1+/-0.8 HO). Some specific risk factors for falls such as prolonged use of benzodiazepines and heart rate higher than 80 pulses per minute were more frequent in the hospital setting (24.2% PC vs 15.6% HO, p=0.0354) and (12.9% PC vs 3.2% HO, p=0.0006), respectively. In contrast, intrinsically bone-related RFs for osteoporotic fracture were generally more prevalent in HO: surgical menopause (20.7% vs. 12.8%, p=0.047), previous vertebral fractures (20.6% PC vs 34.9% HO, p=0.0018), and prolonged use of steroids (7.7% PC vs 15.6% HO, p=0.0167). Sedentary lifestyle and tobacco consumption (cigarettes/day), however, were more prevalent in PC than in HO (48.5% PC vs 31.7% HO, p=0.0009 and 16.9+/-4.6 PC vs 11.4+/-9.7 HO, p=0.0344, respectively).
Conclusions: Risk factors associated with the risk of falling (not bone-related factors) are more prevalent in OP patients, whilst factors associated with bone quality and density (bone-related factors) are more prevalent in HO patients.