Regional fat, weight and osteoporosis in elderly women in Egypt

To test the hypothesis that regional fat and not total body weight has a protective effect on bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women, a cross-sectional study was conducted during the period from March 2008 to June 2009 on 303 healthy postmenopausal women presenting to the osteoporosis unit for screening purposes. BMD of the lumbar spine, L2–L4, and the neck of the left femur were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Regional fat percentage was measured using the same scanner. While overweight was an independent protective factor for both spinal and femoral osteoporosis (OR = 0.397, 95% CI: 0.214–0.739; OR = 0.289, 95% CI: 0.151–0.553 respectively), regional fat percentage was not.