Osteoporosis & BMI

A REMS Scan-Based Report on Relation Between Body Mass Index and Osteoporosis in Urban Population of Medan at Royal Prima Hospital

Adrian Khu,¹ Michael Sumardi ²

MKB 2020; 52(1):22–7

Highlight:

Bone mineral density (BMD) has many predisposition factors. Of those, body mass index (BMI) is deemed as a clinical risk factor for osteoporosis. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the relationship between Body Mass Index (BMI) and osteoporosis assessed using REMS.

Three hundred Indonesian individuals, both male and female, aged 21 years old and above, underwent a REMS scan both at lumbar spine and femoral neck. Subjects were divided into normal, osteopenia, and osteoporosis based on the densitometry parameters and were classified into underweight (<18.5 kg/m²), normal-weight (18.5–22.9 kg/m²), overweight (23–24.9 kg/m²), pre-obese (25–29.9 kg/m²), obese type 1 (30–40 kg/m²), and obese type 2 (40.1–50 kg/m²) according to BMI.

A high agreement was observed in the diagnosis of osteoporosis performed between the two anatomical sites. Most subjects who suffered from osteoporosis detected at spine were pre-obese (26%) with few underweight subjects (5.3%), while most subjects who suffered from osteoporosis detected at femur were overweight (21%) with few underweight subjects (6.7%).

A significant correlation between the BMD and BMI was identified, with a decrease in BMI leading to an increase in potential osteoporosis, for both anatomical sites. This study showed that REMS can be reliably applied in patients with a wide range of body size, from underweight to severe obesity, confirming the clinically known relationship between BMI and osteoporosis occurrence.

1 Department of Orthopaedic and Traumatology, Prima Indonesia University, Medan, Indonesia,

2 General Practitioner, Prima Indonesia University, Medan, Indonesia