Association between Bone Mineral Density and Hypertension in Postmenopausal Women

Background: Low bone mineral density (BMD) is a common disorder in the elderly and found to be most prevalent in postmenopausal women which are thought to be associated with several factors including hypertension, however, results are inconsistent in different studies. Aim of the study: This study aimed to explore the association between BMD and hypertension in postmenopausal women. Methods and materials: In this study, total 76 postmenopausal women were included. BMD was determined at the lumbar spine and femoral neck by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Anthropometric data and status of hypertension and diabetes were collected according to a pre-structured questioner. Results: Age (mean±SD) of the postmenopausal women was 57±9 years. Among them, 46 (60.5%) subjects were hypertensive and 30 (39.5%) were normotensive. Bone mineral density (g/cm2) in normotensive women and in hypertensive women were 0.79±0.15 vs 0.74±0.15 (p=0.160) at lumbar spine; 0.70±0.12 vs 0.69±0.13 (p=0.271) at right femoral neck and 0.73±0.15 vs 0.71±0.13 (p=0.592), respectively. T-scores at lumbar spine, right and left femoral neck in normotensive and hypertensive postmenopausal women were -2.28±1.37 vs -2.75±1.35 (p=0.153), -1.70±1.16 vs -1.95±1.07 (p=0.363) and -1.82±0.95 vs -1.93±1.01 (p=0.632) respectively. On multiple regression analysis, BMD and T-score only at lumbar spine showed inverse association with hypertension (β=-0.069, p=0.045; β=-0.612, p=0.050) on adjusting confounding variables. Conclusion: Hypertension is independently associated with BMD and T-score measured from the lumbar spine but not with BMD and T-score measured from the femoral neck in postmenopausal women.