Abstract
Objective: The aims of the current study were to investigate the prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of risk of osteoporosis in Singapore among patients with schizophrenia using the osteoporosis self-assessment tool for Asians (OSTA).
Method: Data for the current study was drawn from a clinical database maintained at the Institute of Mental Health Singapore. The OSTA index was used to calculate the risk for osteoporosis among those aged 50 years and above.
Results: A total of 2569 patients were included in the study. About 34.6% met the criteria for osteoporosis using the OSTA cut-off of ≤ −1. Among the males 22.8% met criteria for high risk and 1.5% met criteria for very high risk, while among women 28.2% were at intermediate risk and 14.9% were at high risk of osteoporosis. The logistic regression analysis showed that older age and female gender were significantly associated with a higher risk of osteoporosis, while those with a history of hypertension and hyperlipidemia were less likely to be associated with a risk of osteoporosis.
Conclusion: The OSTA could be a useful, inexpensive and quick tool to both identify those with osteoporosis as well as to measure the effectiveness of interventions meant to alleviate it.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.