Primary prevention of osteoporosis: pediatric approach to disease of the elderly.

0 steoporosis is the most prevalent metabolic bone disease in Western societies and affects about 30% of all postmenopausal white women. The disease is characterized by a reduction of bone tissue relative to the volume of anatomical bone, that increases susceptibility to fracture. Current understanding of osteoporosis indicates that the disease is present when bone mass lies more than 2 standard deviations below the mean of young adults of the same sex. Several factors characteristic for the osteoporotic bone lead to subsequent bone fractures. Low bone mass is the most important. Fatigue damage, which causes structural failure of the bone, and poor bone architecture, which makes a bone less resistant to load and stress, are other factors contributing to fragility of a bone. In addition, there must be a fracture-producing force or trauma, usually a fall or a mechanical stress, that will lead to a fracture.’ Risk factors for osteoporosis can be divided into endogenous and exogenous in origin and are classified in Table 1.