MedWire News: Researchers estimating the prevalence of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis in Japan have found that disease levels are high in adults over the age of 40 years.
Noriko Yoshimura (The University of Tokyo, Japan) and colleagues note that, although preventive strategies for musculoskeletal diseases are urgently required in an aging society, epidemiological data on these diseases are scant.
The team therefore collected clinical information from three cohorts composed of 3040 participants (35% men) located in urban, mountainous, and coastal areas to estimate the prevalence of knee osteoarthritis (KOA), lumbar spondylosis (LS), and osteoporosis in Japan.
As reported in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism, the prevalence of KOA increased with increasing age and was significantly higher in women than in men. It ranged from 0% in men aged 39 years or younger to 51.6% in men aged 80 years or older and from 3.2% in women aged 39 years or younger to 80.7% in women aged 80 years or older.
Similarly, the prevalence of LS increased with increasing age, from 14.3% to 90.1% in men aged 39 years or younger and 80 years of older, respectively, and from 9.7% to 78.2%, respectively, in women. In contrast to KOA, the prevalence of LS was significantly higher in men than in women.
When the data were analyzed by region the researchers found that people living in the mountainous area had the highest prevalence of KOA, whereas those living in the urban area had the highest prevalence of LS. The prevalence of osteoporosis also increased with increasing age and was higher in women than in men.
Yoshimura et al calculated that, if the results obtained were applicable to the total Japanese population, the estimated number of patients aged 40 years and older with KOA, LS, and lumbar spine and femoral neck osteoporosis would be approximately 25, 38, 6.4, and 11 million, respectively.
The researchers note that the study participants will be followed-up for at least 10 years.
“This study will provide the information required to develop clinical algorithms for the early identification of potential high-risk populations, as well as essential information for the development of policies for the detection and prevention of osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, or osteoporotic fractures,” they conclude.
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