Study Finds Relationship Between Hypertension, Risk of Osteoporosis

A study in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders found an independent relationship between hypertension and osteoporosis.

The researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and 37,807 participants were included in the study. A total of 2523 participants in the cohort had osteoporosis; among them, 86.2% were female. The mean age of the osteoporosis subgroup was 68.65 years.

Incidence of hypertension was significantly higher in patients with osteoporosis compared with the rest of the cohort (P<.001). Additionally, participants with hypertension had a greater prevalence of osteoporosis than participants without hypertension (P<.001). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression confirmed an association between hypertension and osteoporosis. The odds ratio for osteoporosis in patients with hypertension was 2.693 with univariate regression (P<.0001) and 1.183 with multivariate regression (P=.004). There were significant associations between hypertension and osteoporosis among participants who were younger than 60 years of age or male and in those with diabetes or hypercholesterolemia.

“This observational study revealed a strong association between hypertension and a greater prevalence of osteoporosis,” the authors concluded, “suggesting that we should pay attention to the extracardiovascular effects of hypertension and that timely and effective preventive strategies should be developed for people at high risk of osteoporosis to reduce the high prevalence of osteoporosis and the burden of disease.”

The authors acknowledged several limitations. Given that data on incidence of osteoporosis and hypertension were collected via survey, prevalence of osteoporosis and hypertension may not be representative. Additionally, factors such as diet, environment, and genetics, which are strongly associated with both hypertension and osteoporosis, were not included in the analysis. The study was also not validated in postmenopausal women specifically due to the nature of the survey data collected. The authors called for further research to understand the mechanisms of the association between hypertension and osteoporosis to guide clinical care.