Risk Factors for Osteoporosis Among West Virginians

National Osteoporosis Foundation Prevalence Estimates
State Burden of Fractures Model

Risk Factors for Osteoporosis Among West Virgnians

Age, sex, and race all play a major role in the development of osteoporosis, with older white women the group at greatest risk for the disease. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, West Virginia's population has the highest median age in the nation, 37.7, exceeding even that of Florida (37.6). Hobbs reports in 65+ in the United States that West Virginia ranks fourth in the nation in the proportion of its population that is elderly (9). Women compose a larger percentage of the population in West Virginia than in the nation as a whole: the state's population is 53.1% female, compared to 51.3% in the total U.S. The Mountain State has a small minority population, with 96.2% of the population classified as white, 3.1% as African American, and 0.7% as another race.

Provisional data from the 1997 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a telephone survey of West Virginians aged 18 and older that monitors health behaviors, provided information on the prevalence of eight additional risk factors for osteoporosis: bone structure/body weight, menopause, heredity, thyroid or cortisone-like medications, consumption of dairy products, cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, and alcohol misuse. The table below presents these findings.

Further analysis of the provisional 1997 BRFSS data revealed that 7.0% of women surveyed reported having a small, thin frame and a family history of osteoporosis. Over one-fifth (22.6%) of women who had a family history of osteoporosis also reported being cigarette smokers, while 67.8% had a sedentary lifestyle. Among women who had gone through menopause, 23.5% smoked, 70.3% were sedentary, 90.0% consumed fewer than three servings of dairy products per day, and 19.0% had a family history of osteoporosis. Those respondents who reported more than one risk factor for osteoporosis have an increased likelihood of developing the disease.

The chart above depicts the percentage of women in West Virginia who have gone through menopause (the leading cause of osteoporosis) and have reported other risk factors as well. As shown, nearly nine out of every ten women (87.7%) in this group reported having three or more risk factors for osteoporosis. The table on the following two pages lists the combinations of multiple risk factors reported by these women during the 1997 BRFSS survey (January - October data).

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