Vasomotor symptoms and osteoporosis in Korean postmenopausal women

• Vasomotor symptoms are associated with adverse bone health in postmenopausal women.
• The severity of these symptoms is associated with decreased bone mineral density.
• Moderate to severe symptoms are independently associated with risk of osteoporosis.

ObjectivesThis study examined the relationships between vasomotor symptoms (VMS), bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.Study designA cross-sectional study was conducted of 1390 postmenopausal Korean women aged 45–65 years who attended a routine health check-up at a single institution. Their results on the Menopause Rating Scale were used to assess VMS, and moderate, severe, and very severe VMS were combined into moderate-to-severe VMS.Main outcome measuresThe relationships of VMS with BMD and osteoporosis in the lumbar spine and femoral neck bone were analyzed by multivariate regression analyses.ResultsThe mean age of all participants was 54.63 ± 4.78 years. Four hundred seventy-one (33.9%) women reported mild VMS and 344 (24.7%) reported moderate-to-severe VMS. Osteoporosis was newly diagnosed in 156 (11.2%) women. BMD levels were not significantly different among the no/mild/moderate-to-severe VMS groups, despite the significant differences in the prevalence of osteoporosis in the femoral neck bone. Women with mild VMS and those with moderate-to-severe VMS had a lower BMD than women without VMS after adjustment for age, years since menopause, years of reproductive age, BMI, insulin resistance, smoking, alcohol, steroids use, exercise, previous fracture and parental history of hip fracture. And moderate-to-severe VMS was significantly associated with the risk of osteoporosis in the femoral neck bone (OR = 2.97, 95% CI = 1.41–6.26) and in the lumbar spine (OR = 1.93, 95% CI = 1.09–3.40).ConclusionsVMS are associated with decreased BMD, and moderate-to-severe VMS in particular are independently associated with the risk of osteoporosis in otherwise healthy postmenopausal Korean women.