Time since vertebral fracture: An important variable concerning quality oflife in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis

The aim of the study was to identify factors affecting patients with postme nopausal osteoporosis who had experienced one or more vertebral fractures. The overall hypothesis was that time after fracture would influence patient s' perception of pain and well-being. The sample (50 patients) was split in to two groups (group A, time after fracture less than or equal to 24 months ; group B, time after fracture >24 months). A fracture was defined as a ver tebral height reduction of more than 20% or at least 4 mm. The assessment w as carried out using the Spine Deformity Index and was confirmed by an expe rienced radiologist. To assess quality of life (QoL) the following measures were used: 'well-being scale' including social extroversion as a subscale, pain scale, and limitations in everyday Life. The Sense of Coherence quest ionnaire developed by Antonovsky measures the ability of a person to see li fe meaningful, manageable and explicable. This questionnaire may reflect pa tients' coping abilities and was introduced to establish whether these infl uence the perception of pain and well-being after vertebral fracture. Varia nce and covariance analysis was carried out using SPSS (version 6.1). Diffe rences between groups A and B were found for perception of average pain (p = 0.017), social extroversion (p = 0.003) and well-being (p = 0.024). No di fferences were found for Limitations in everyday life (p = 0.607), Sense of Coherence (p = 0.638), the Spine Deformity Index (p = 0.171) and loss of h eight (p = 0.619). All analyses were corrected for age. Concurrent medicati on was not found to influence the results. Findings suggest that time after fracture is an important variable when considering QoL and well-being afte r vertebral fracture and should, therefore, be considered in future studies .