The Association of Asthma and Osteoporosis in the Residents of the Local Community

Park, Kyungyong; Lee, Sokgoo

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Corticosteroids, usually as an inhaled form, are usually used to treat narrowed airway in the treatment of asthma. However, the use of corticosteroid commonly associated with the development of osteoporosis. In this study, we studied the association of asthma and osteoporosis in the residents of the local community.
METHODS
As a part of the Local Community Health Study Chungnam 2008, the residents are surveyed with the formal questionnaire. We analyzed the association between asthma and osteoporosis data with the questionnaire.
RESULTS
We analyzed total 6,348 data from the residents in Chungnam province. Of them, 203(3.2%) were asthma patients and 465(7.3%) were osteoporosis patients. Patients with asthma have more advanced age(p<0.01), higher incidence of hypertension(p<0.01) and diabetes(p=0.001), lower incidence of exercise(p=0.002) and economic activity(p<0.01). Patients with osteoporosis have more advanced age (p<0.01), female predominance(p<0.01), higher incidence of hypertension (p<0.01), diabetes(p=0.001), and fractures (p<0.01), lower incidence of exercise (p=0.002) and economic activity (p<0.01). In total population, asthma is associated with the increased incidence of osteoporosis, especially in patients treated with anti-asthmatic medications.
CONCLUSIONS
Through this study, we demonstrated the presence of asthma is closely associated with the increased incidence of osteoporosis, especially in patients treated with anti-asthmatic medications. Therefore, further and broad study will be needed to evaluate the association of asthma and the types of anti-asthmatic medications in the development of osteoporosis.