Adults Born With Very Low Birth Weight at Risk for Osteoporosis
Reported August 25, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — In a new study, Petteri Hovi and colleagues from the National Institute for Health and Welfare Helsinki, Finland evaluated skeletal health in 144 adults, ages ranging from 18 to 27 years, who were born preterm with very low birth weight. They show that as adults these individuals have significantly lower bone mineral density than do their term-born peers and suggest that this finding translates into increased risk for osteoporosis in adulthood for these individuals.
Osteoporosis is a disease in which the bones become weak and are more likely to break. People with osteoporosis most often break bones in the hip, spine, and wrist. In the United States, 10 million people have osteoporosis. Millions more have low bone mass (called osteopenia), placing them at risk for osteoporosis and broken bones. Osteoporosis can strike at any age, but it is most common in older women. Eighty percent of the people in the United States with osteoporosis are women. One out of every two women and one in four men over age 50 will break a bone in their lifetime due to osteoporosis.
Many risk factors can lead to bone loss and osteoporosis. Some of these things you cannot change and others you can.
Risk factors you cannot change include:
• Gender. Women get osteoporosis more often than men.
• Age. The older you are, the greater your risk of osteoporosis.
• Body size. Small, thin women are at greater risk.
• Ethnicity. White and Asian women are at highest risk. Black and Hispanic women have a lower risk.
• Family history. Osteoporosis tends to run in families. If a family member has osteoporosis or breaks a bone, there is a greater chance that you will too.
SOURCE: PLoS Medicine, August 24, 2009