Preliminary investigation on prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia: Should we tune our focus on healthy adults?

Aim: Osteoporosis and osteopenia are global health problems with increasing trend, particularly in developed regions. Apart from traditional well-recognized high-risk groups (i.e. postmenopausal women and elders), prevalence of such problems among adults should not be ignored because of the advantages of early detection and health promotion. Therefore, this preliminary study aims to investigate the prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia among adult office workers, which represented a relatively large proportion of the population in urbanized cities. Methods: An GE-Lunar Achilles ultrasonometer was used to screen the bone mineral density (BMD) of 80 participants. Results: The BMD T-score ranged from -3 to 3.5. The majority of the participants had normal BMD result (T-score, ≥-1), whereas 35% was classified as abnormal (T-score, <-1) including 31.3% osteopenia and 3.8% osteoporosis. Conclusion: High prevalence rate of abnormal BMD among healthy adults should be further studied in this population. The findings also suggest that the current ignorance in adulthood may increase the prevalence of osteoporotic fractures in the future.