BONE MINERAL DENSITY MEASUREMENT IN ADULT SOMALI POPULATION

骨质疏松症是一个日益严重的公共卫生问题，其后果是相关的骨折，特别是股骨近端。 尽管过去的焦点一直集中在白色妇女的骨质疏松症问题上，但越来越多的人认识到骨质疏松性骨折也对其他人群构成威胁。 例如，在1995年，在这个国家，6.5%的非白人骨折的总成本，9.01亿美元，是由于非白人骨折。 然而，非洲遗产人群中骨丢失和骨折的流行病学仍然知之甚少。 非洲国家的流行病学研究主要集中在传染病上。骨质疏松症是否是来自非洲的移民和难民的潜在问题尚不清楚。 这项提案的目的是评估奥姆斯特德县原籍索马里居民的骨骼状况。到目前为止，我们已经从索马里招募了70名妇女参加这项为期4年的前瞻性研究，以确定索马里人口中骨质流失的风险因素，并与社区中白色男性和女性的风险因素进行比较。当基线研究完成后，我们计划比较索马里裔和非裔美国人的骨密度水平。

Osteoporosis is a growing public health problem as a consequence of its associated fractures, especially of the proximal femur. Although the focus in the past has been on the problem of osteoporosis in white women, there is an increasing recognition that osteoporotic fractures also pose a threat to other populations. In 1995, for example, 6.5% of the total cost of osteoporotic fractures in this country, $901 million, was due to fractures in nonwhites. However, the epidemiology of bone loss and fractures in populations of African heritage is still poorly known. Epidemiological studies for African nations are primarily focused on infectious diseases. Whether or not osteoporosis represents a potential problem among immigrants and refugees from Africa is unknown. The goal of this proposal is to assess the skeletal status of Olmsted County residents originally from Somalia. We have so far enrolled 70 women from Somalia in this 4-year prospective study to identify risk factors for bone loss in the Somali population for comparison with risk factors for white men and women in the community. When the baseline studies are complete, we plan to compare bone density levels among county residents of Somali origin to those of African-American residents.