Predicting Osteoporosis with Body Compositions in Postmenopausal Women: A Noninvasive Method

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-43529/v1

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Predicting Osteoporosis with Body Compositions in Postmenopausal Women: A Noninvasive Method

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-43529/v1

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published 24 Mar, 2021

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Background: The prevalence of osteoporosis is rising steadily as the aging population increases. Bone mineral density (BMD) assessment is an established test for osteoporosis. However, the accessibility and radiation exposure limited its role in community screening. A more convenient approach for screening is suggested.

Methods: A total of 363 postmenopausal women over 50 age were included in this study and assessed with the body composition [including fat-free mass (FFM), fat mass (FM), and basal metabolic rate (BMR)] and BMD. Normal distributions and correlation coefficients among variables were calculated using the Shapiro-Wilk test and Pearson’s correlation analysis, respectively. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted and area under the ROC curves (AUC) was determined the optimal cut-off values of the body composition variables for osteoporosis prediction.

Results: The correlation coefficient of FFM, FM, FM ratio and BMR with femur neck T-score were 0.373, 0.266, 0.165, and 0.369, respectively while with spine T-score were 0.350, 0.251, 0.166, and 0.352, respectively (p < 0.01 for all). FFM, FM, and BMR showed an optimal the cut-off value of 37.9 kg, 18.6 kg and 1187.5 kcal for detecting osteoporosis.

Conclusions: The present study provided a model to predict osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and the optimal cut-off value of FFM, FM, and BMR could be calculated. Among these factors, BMR seemed a better predictor than others. The BMR could be a target for exercise intervention in postmenopausal women for maintaining or improving BMD.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02936336. Registered 13 October 2016 -Retrospectively registered

Rheumatology

Basal metabolic rate

Fat-free mass

Fat mass

Osteoporosis

Postmenopausal women.

Osteoporosis is a common and silent skeletal disease characterized by bone mineral density (BMD) loss, resulting in fragile bone and high fracture risk [1–3], especially in postmenopausal women. About 200 million people are suffered from osteoporosis and near 8.9 million are osteoporotic fractures[4]. Osteoporotic fracture has a high mortality, morbidity and the cost of social care, and low health-related quality of life[1, 3, 5, 6]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline, osteoporosis diagnostic criteria and categories are based on BMD measurement. Because of the population aging, the prevalence of osteoporosis is rising steadily [7]. However, BMD assessment is a hospital-based examination which is also disadvantaged by radiation exposure. A more convenient approach for screening is suggested.

Fat mass (FM) has a positive correlation with BMD, especially in the elderly [8–10] and is more influential on the BMD than fat-free mass (FFM) be [11, 12]. Some researches pointed out that FFM is an important predictor for BMD without the age restriction [13, 14]. Our previous study found out the basal metabolic rate (BMR) is closely associated with BMD in elderly persons, and claim BMR might be a predictor for osteoporosis[15]. Based on these results, the relationship between body composition and BMD was clarified and the parameters of body composition (FFM, FM, FM ratio, and BMR) have the potential to predict BMD. But it is unclear that what the cut-off values of FFM, FM, FM ratio, and BMR are for osteoporosis prediction. Because the prevalence of osteoporosis in women is higher than in men[16]. Here, we undertook this pilot study to determine the cut-off values of FFM, FM, BMR, and FM ratio from body composition, non-invasive assessment, to predict osteoporosis.

Participants

Between August 2010 and December 2012, participants were enrolled from the rural community from southern Taiwan. The inclusion criteria were physically independent postmenopausal women aged over 50-year-old. The exclusion criteria were women taking any medications predisposing to poor bone quality, undergoing any medical therapies of osteoporosis and hormone-replacement therapy, with cognitive impairment and diabetes mellitus, and having bone fracture history. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee and Institutional Review Board of the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (IRB 99-3951B) and registered in the ClinicalTrails.gov (ID: NCT02936336). The written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

BMD measurement

DXA (QDR 4500A; Hologic, Waltham, MA, USA) was performed to measure the BMD of the proximal femur (femoral neck) and lumbar spine (L2-L4) by an experienced and qualified radiographer. By the definition from the World Health Organization, a BMD T-score of -2.5 or below is a diagnosed as osteoporosis.

Body composition

An eight-polar tactile-electrode impedance meter (InBody 720, Biospace, Seoul, Korea) was used to assess the body composition and simultaneously recorded body weight, FFM, total body water, and regional fat mass and BMR [15].

Statistical analysis

Normal distributions were calculated using the Shapiro-Wilk test. Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to calculate the correlation coefficients among variables. By the World Health Organization definition (osteoporosis: T-score ≦-2.5; osteopenia: T- score ≦-1 and ༞-2.5; normal: T-score ༞-1), the participants in this study were divided into two groups, non-osteoporosis (non-OP) and osteoporosis (OP). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted with non-OP as positive and OP as negative to assess the diagnostic value of the predictors FFM, FM, BMR and FM ratio. The area under the ROC curves (AUC) was calculated to evaluate the predictive performance of the variables. The points on the fit curve closest to the left upper corner were defined as cut-off points for the diagnosis of osteoporosis [17]. All data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Windows, version 17.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). All continuous data were presented as the mean ± SD.

Between August 2010 and December 2012, all participants were enrolled from the rural community from southern Taiwan. A total of 363 postmenopausal women over 50 age were included in this study and the subjects’ demography is shown in Table 1. The average of subjects’ age is 64.1 years, a body mass index (BMI) is 24.7 kg / m2. The women had mean T-score of femur neck and spine are respectively − 1.9 ± 1.0 and − 1.8 ± 1.4. Their mean FFM, FM, and FM ratio are respectively 38 ± 4 kg, 21.2 ± 6.3 kg and 35 ± 7%, while the mean of BMR is 1182.7 ± 88.9 kcal. Based on the WHO osteoporosis definition, we classified 211 subjects whose T-score > -2.5 as non- osteoporosis group and 152 subjects whose T-score < -2.5 as osteoporosis group.

Table 1

Demography of subjects (N = 363)
	Mean ±	SD
Age (years)	64.1	± 8.3
Height (cm)	154.7	± 5.2
Weight (kg)	59.0	± 8.5
BMI (kg/m²)	24.7	± 3.4
Femur neck T-score	-1.9	± 1.0
Spine T-score	-1.8	± 1.4
Fat-free mass (kg)	38	± 4
Fat mass (kg)	21.2	± 6.3
Fat mass ratio (%)	35	± 7
Basal metabolic rate (kcal)	1182.7	± 88.9
Non- osteoporosis: osteoporosis	211: 152
BMI: Body mass index, FFM: Fat-free mass, FM: Fat mass, FM ratio: Fat mass ratio, BMR: Basal metabolic rate.

To assess the relationship between body composition variables (FFM, FM, FM ratio, and BMR) and BMD T-score (femur neck and spine), Pearson correlation analysis was performed. As shown in Table 2, all indicators of (FFM, FM, FM ratio, and BMR) are positively correlated with BMD T-score. The correlation coefficient of FFM, FM, FM ratio and BMR with femur neck T-score were 0.373, 0.266, 0.165, and 0.369, respectively while with spine T-score were 0.350, 0.251, 0.166, and 0.352, respectively (p < 0.01 for all).

Table 2

Correlation coefficients of fat-free mass Fat mass and BMR vs. BMD T-score.
(r)	Femur neck T-score	Spine T-score
FFM	.373^**	.350^**
FM	.266^**	.251^**
FM%	.165^**	.166^**
BMR	.369^**	.352^**
FFM: Fat-free mass, FM: Fat mass, FM ratio: Fat mass ratio, BMR: Basal metabolic rate.
** p < 0.01

ROC curve analysis was performed to estimate the optimal cut-off value of FFM, FM, FM ratio and BMR for predicting osteoporosis. As shown in Table 3 and Fig. 1, FFM showed an optimal sensitivity (0.588) and specificity (0.73) at the cut-off value of 37.9 kg (AUC = 0.700, 95%CI: 0.646–0.753). FM revealed an optimal sensitivity (0.73) and specificity (0.47) at the cut-off value of 18.6 kg (AUC = 0.602, 95%CI: 0.542–0.661). BMR presented an optimal sensitivity (0.59) and specificity (0.73) at the cut-off value of 1187.5 kcal (AUC = 0.701, 95%CI: 0.647–0.754) while FM ratio didn’t statistically predict osteoporosis.

Table 3

Area under curve (AUC) of BMR, fat-free mass and Fat mass as a single predictor for each measurement site from ROC analysis
Variable	AUC	Cut-point	95.0% CI
Variable	AUC	Cut-point	Lower	Upper
FFM	.700**	37.9 kg	.646	.753
FM	.602**	18.6 kg	.542	.661
FM ratio	.538	26.7%	.477	.599
BMR	.701**	1187.5 kcal	.647	.754
FFM: Fat-free mass, FM: Fat mass, FM ratio: Fat mass ratio, BMR: Basal metabolic rate. ** p < 0.01

Previous studies reported that FM is related to the BMD of the lumbar spine and proximal femur [18, 19]. Besides, other studies showed that BMR is more closely related to BMD than FFM, FM, and BMI [15, 20, 21]. Our results were echoed to these studies and revealed that FFM, FM, and BMR could be effective to predict osteoporosis (BMD T-score< -2.5) with the optimal cut-off value 37.9 kg, 18.6 kg, and 1187.5 kcal, respectively (Table 3 and Fig. 1) in women over 50-old-year. If their FFM, FM, and BMR were lower than the cut-off values (FFM: 37.9 kg, FM:18.6 kg, BMR:1187.5 kcal), they might have a high risk of osteoporosis.

As mentioned above, higher FM went along with higher BMD as an effective predator for osteoporosis but some studies showed that FM was not effective for osteoporosis prediction in middle-aged and elderly people in Asia [22, 23] and the increased central body FM was negatively associated with BMD [24]. Moreover, Saarelainen and his colleagues reported that trunk FM is positively related to lumbar spine BMD, but not to the hip BMD and body weight in postmenopausal women [19]. Kirchengast and his colleagues found out that the relationship between FM and BMD only occurred in elder women [25]. These studies showed that the FM for osteoporosis prediction might be restricted by the human race, gender, the region of FM, etc. However, FFM has a stronger positive relation with BMD at all ages in Chinese men and women [26] and our results (Table 3) also showed that the AUC of FFM (0.700) was higher than FM (0.602), suggesting that FFM seems to be better than FM for osteoporosis prediction.

BMR, the amount of energy expended, is predicted with regarding to resting energy expenditure. BMR is more closely associated with BMD in elderly persons than BMI, FM, and FFM [15, 20, 21]. BMR is also positively associated with muscle strength [27] while muscle strength and BMD also are correlated [28, 29]. Also, our results showed that the AUC of BMR is higher than FFM, and FM, suggesting that BMR might be a good predictor for osteoporosis. According to our results, we proposed that if the postmenopausal woman’s BMR is lower than the cut-off value,1187.5 kcal, the subject might have higher osteoporosis risk than others whose over 1187.5 kcal. Besides, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) proposes that increasing physical exercise can maintain and improve bone quality in response to bone health problems [30]. Here, we provided the cut-off value of 1187.5 kcal of BMR. It could serve as a target value for exercise intervention to enhance BMR in postmenopausal women to maintain and improve their BMD.

Several limitations of the present study should be acknowledged. First, the subjects of this study are postmenopausal women aged over 50 years old. Men and those under 50 years old are not included. Therefore, the relevant threshold only applies to postmenopausal women aged over 50 years old. Second, because the subjects were from southern Taiwan, the present cut-off value was restricted to Asians. Nevertheless, the effect of the exercise on the BMD has no difference in different races so we proposed that the BMR could be a predictor for BMD in different races via slightly adjusting the cut-off value of BMR.

Implications For Practice

In the present study, we provided the cut-off value of FFM, FM, and BMR to predict osteoporosis and BMR could be a better predictor than others. Simultaneously, the BMR could serve as a target value for exercise intervention to enhance BMR in postmenopausal women to maintain or improve their BMD.

BMD: Bone mineral density, FFM: Fat-free mass, FM: Fat mass, BMR: Basal metabolic rate, ROC: Receiver operating characteristic, AUC: Area under the ROC curves, BMI: Body mass index, ACSM: American College of Sports Medicine.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This retrospective study was approved by the Ethics Committee and Institutional Review Board of the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (IRB 99-3951B), and all patients provided written informed consent. The study protocol was also registered in the ClinicalTrails.gov (ID: NCT02936336).

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request

Competing interests

All authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Funding

This work was supported by Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Grant CMRPG690111-3 and CORPG6F0011-13 are appreciated. There was no external funding.

Authors’ contributions

WHH and WBH drafted the manuscript and revised it critically for important intellectual content. WBH and CHF analyzed and interpreted the data. WHH and RWWH contributed substantially to the conception and design of the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgments

Not applicable

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Predicting Osteoporosis with Body Compositions in Postmenopausal Women: A Noninvasive Method

Status:

Journal Publication

Version 1

Abstract

Figures

Background

Methods

Participants

BMD measurement

Body composition

Statistical analysis

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

Abbreviations

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Consent for publication

Availability of data and materials

Competing interests

Funding

Authors’ contributions

Acknowledgments

References

Status:

Journal Publication

Version 1