Further evidence supports a much lower prevalence of radiographic osteoporotic vertebral fracture in Hong Kong Chinese women than in Italian Caucasian women

Excerpt

With spine radiographs from two epidemiological studies conducted in Hong Kong and in Rome (MsOS[Hong Kong] study and Roman Osteoporosis Prevention Project), we recently compared radiographic OVF (osteoporotic vertebral fracture) prevalence in age-matched elderly Chinese women and Italian Caucasian women (both n = 200 cases and mean age = 74.1 years, data 1). Results showed a much lower prevalence and severity of radiographic OVF in Hong Kong subjects than in Italian subjects [1]. Though these results are consistent with other findings such as, compared with Caucasians, Chinese have a much lower hip fragility fracture rate and a much lower clinical spine fragility fracture rate, and OVFs among Chinese progress slower [2‐4], there are still considerations that our radiographic OVF results were based on a single study with relatively small sample size [1]. To partially address these concerns, we analyzed additional radiological evidence and present them in this letter. …