Bone mineral density in perimenopausal women with asthma - A population-based cross-sectional study

It is not known whether asthma constitutes a risk factor for osteoporosis o r what the impact is of inhaled corticosteroids on bone mineral density (BM D). The study population (n = 3,222) was a random stratified sample from th e Kuopio Osteoporosis Study, which included all women 47 to 56 yr of age re siding in Kuopio Province, Eastern Finland. Spinal and femoral BMDs were me asured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. The BMD values of 119 asthma tics were cross-sectionally compared with those of 3,103 nonasthmatics. Of the 119 asthmatic women, 28 had not used corticosteroids, 65 had used oral corticosteroids, and 26 had used only inhaled corticosteroids. The asthmati cs with no hormone replacement therapy (HRT) (n = 83) had lower mean spinal and femoral BMD value than did the corresponding nonasthmatics (spinal BMD , 1.083 +/- 0.150 [SD] versus 1.128 +/- 0.160 g/cm(2), p < 0.05; femoral BM D, 0.894 +/- 0.112 [SD] versus 0.929 +/- 0.128 g/cm(2), p < 0.05). Although BMDs were not significantly decreased in the asthmatics who had used inhal ed corticosteroids, the duration of use correlated negatively with spinal B MD and was also associated with spinal BMD in multiple regression analysis. In perimenopausal women, asthma is associated with decreased bone density. This may be due to the corticosteroids rather than to the disease itself. However, HRT appears to be protective against bone loss also in asthmatics.