[Evaluation of the functioning of women with osteoporosis with vertebral fractures and without vertebral fractures using the Polish version of Qualeffo-41]

Abstract

Osteoporosis is a very frequent bone illness and fractures not giving any symptoms in the form of pain are its typical complication and a common diagnostic sign. For a many years the diagnosis of osteoporosis was made only after recognizing a fracture. The objective of this research is to evaluate the influence of osteoporosis on functioning of women with vertebral fractures and without vertebral fractures, treated in Menopause and Osteoporosis Outpatient and Orthopedic Outpatient in Poznan. According to the World Health Organization, definition, subjects were classified as having osteoporosis if they had a T-score < -2.5 SD, osteopenic if -2.5 < T-score < -1.0 SD, and normal BMD if--score was > -1.0 SD in at least one of the measured areas (either lumbar spine, or femoral, or both). The Polish version of the Qualeffo was administered to all subjects. The analysis of the results shows that the evaluation of functioning oscillates between mean values of: 40.80 +/- 3.82 for osteoporosis group, 37.79 +/- 337 for osteopenic group and 37.43 +/- 2.80 for control group. Between groups I, II and III a statistically important difference was discovered with p < 0.001. In evaluating the functioning of women with osteoporosis and osteopenic in accordance to age, three domains were especially important: physical functioning (p < 0.001), social functioning (p < 0.001) and general health perception (p < 0.01). Comparing the groups of woman with and without fractures of the stem of the vertebrae, the functioning was evaluated as definitely worse by patients that had diagnosed osteoporotic fractures. Those patients received a lower score in all domains of the instrument.