An evaluation of bone mineral density in Australian women of Asian descent

SUMMARY Asian women have been reported to have lower bone mineral density (BMD) than Caucasians, but this could be due to body habitus rather than ethnicity. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether Australian women of Asian descent have intrinsically dissimilar BMD compared to Australian women of Caucasian origin. We compared Australian Asian (n= 36) and Caucasian (n= 304) women who were referred for bone densitometry and in whom disorders or medications known to interfere with bone metabolism were excluded. Covariables including age, postmenopausal status, years since menopause (YSM), alcohol and smoking consumption, family history, current exercise levels, height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and Asian origin were analysed by multivariate linear regression to determine the independent predictors of BMD in the spine, hip and distal radius. The BMD in the spine (R2= 0.31), hip (R2= 0.27) and distal radius (R2= 0.31) were associated with YSM (all sites), postmenopausal status, weight and smoking (spine and hip), BMI (spine and wrist), family history (hip) and height (wrist). The BMD at these sites were similar for Asian and Caucasian women after adjusting for these variables. Thus, Asian-Australians have similar BMD to Caucasian-Australians after adjusting for potential confounding variables. Bone mineral density is independently related to a number of clinical and lifestyle-related factors, but not ethnicity.