Objectives: Osteoporosis is a «silent epidemic», resulting from a combination of many possible causal and risk factors, which prevalence depend on particular features of the population. The authors propose to characterize some of these elements, with special attention to vitamin D (vitD) levels, in a Portuguese population at risk, selected on the basis of a history of prior fragility fracture.
Methods: Participants were selected from the computerized list of discharges from all hospitalized patients in a Central Hospital in Oporto, between the dates 1/1/2002 and 31/12/2004, with the diagnosis of low-impact fracture of the wrist. They were invited to a reassessment of their risk of fracture, after 5 to 7 years from that event. For each one, a protocol was completed, focusing on clinical, epidemiological, laboratorial, radiological and densitometric parameters.
Results: In this population, as expected, there was a high rate of osteoporosis risk factors, which may explain the also high rate of subsequent osteoporotic fractures. Among others, early menopause, low intake of calcium and protein, levels of vitD generally inadequate and low frequency of osteopo-rosis treatment were noticed.
Discussion: The widespread insufficiency of vitD, described in other populations, mostly from the Northern countries, was also found here, supporting the suspicion that also in Portugal low vitD levels could be prevalent, despite the supposed regular sun exposure. These and other observations in this series, to be proven in directed studies, should, meanwhile, raise the levels of awareness of the community, but particularly health professionals and policymakers of public health, in a matter with a strong impact on individual and collective health in the country.