Physical activity and osteoporotic fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis in Serbia

Introduction: Physical activity in postmenopausal women can slow bone loss and reduce the risk of osteoporotic fractures. Purpose: Analysis of the incidence of fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis in relation to physical activity. Methods: This paper represents a retrospective multicenter study of postmenopausal women with newly found osteoporosis from August 2008 until November 2011. All data concerning the patients were taken from the National Register for Osteoporosis. Patients were divided into two groups: in the first group were physically active and in the second, physically inactive patients. Physical activity included dancing, active or recreational sports, fast walking, running, jumping and lifting. Results: The study included 363 respondents, mean age 64.4 ± 8.6 years, of whom 155 (42.7%) were physically active, and 208 (57.3%) physically inactive. 86 (23.7%) patients had spontaneous single fractures, 23 (14.8%) in the physically active group and 63 (30.3%) in the physically inactive group, which was statistically significant difference in frequency (p = 0.001). Respondents with multiple spontaneous fractures were separated in a special group and were not included in the above analysis. 21 patients had spontaneous multiple fractures, of whom 4 (2.5%) physically active and 17 (7.55%) physically inactive, which was statistically significant difference in frequency (p = 0.032). Conclusion: Spontaneous single and multiple fractures are significantly more frequent with physically inactive subjects.