Clinical and demographic characterisation of the population with osteoporosis in two reference medical centres in Colombia

Abstract Introduction Osteoporosis is a public health problem. However, there is still a lack of data in Colombia on the characteristics of patients with osteoporosis. Objectives This study aims to characterise the population with osteoporosis without previous diagnosis. Materials and methods Observational, retrospective, descriptive study in patients with osteoporosis. Patients diagnosed between 2014 and 2017 were included. The information was obtained from the patient medical records and the densitometry results. Results Most (92.2%) of the patients came from Medellin, and the rest from Cali. The mean age of the population was 65.1 years (SD: 9.97). As regards the history of fracture, it was reported that 12.0% had suffered from vertebral fractures, 2.3% had a history of fracture in the distal radius, 2.8% in the femoral neck, and 1.4% had had femoral shaft fracture. Bone densitometry showed a mean T-score of −2.90 in the femoral neck; −3.02 in total hip; −3.03 in the lumbar spine, and −3.42 in the 33% radius. In the 602 patients who had a control bone densitometry, an average BMD gain was seen in all the evaluated regions. Conclusions The present study has enabled the characterising of patients from 2 Colombian cities with a diagnosis of osteoporosis. The 2 most frequently reported locations for the diagnosis of osteoporosis were lumbar spine and femoral neck. An average BMD gain was also observed.