Pain, Body Mass Index, and Bone Mineral Density in Patients with Postmenopausal and Senile Osteoporosis

Objective: Osteoporosis [OP] itself does not cause pain and usually has no signs or symptoms. However, pain occurs when there is a fracture or a posture change due to OP. The purpose of this retrospective study was to explore the pain condition in patients with postmenopausal and senile OP. Methods: We studied symptoms of pain in 909 postmenopausal women between the ages of 33 and 89 years. The patients were retrospectively assessed in our outpatient service. Menopause age, duration of menopause, bone mineral density [BMD] values [gr/cm2], their reports of pain, duration of the pain experienced, and body mass index [BMI] were recorded. Results: We found 695 patients [76.45 percent] reported experiencing pain and 214 patients [23.54 percent] reported no pain. The duration of pain was 8.7 5.27 [minimum: 1, maximum: 26] years. We detected 82 cervical [11.79 percent], 77 dorsal [11.07 percent], 175 lumbar [25.17 percent], 183 knee [26.33 percent], and 177 general [25.46 percent] cases of pain. There was no significant difference in BMD between patients with and without pain [P 0.05]. The mean BMI of patients with pain were significantly higher than the mean BMIs of patients without pain. Among the patients who reported experiencing pain, the highest BMI values were in the knee pain group. Mean BMIs of the knee pain and dorsal pain groups were significantly higher than the mean BMIs of the painless group. Conclusion: OP commonly affects the spine and may cause debilitating pain. Pain can be either a warning sign of weakened bones and potential injury for women or a symptom of a spinal fracture. However, we did not find a significant association between a change in BMD and pain in postmenopausal and senile women. We detected a relationship between pain and BMI in the patients with knee, dorsal, and general pain.