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Abstract: Purpose: To investigate bone mineral density (BMD) profiles, osteoporosis prevalence and risk factors in a community-based cohort in Korea. Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of 1,547 men and 1991 women aged 40years and older with BMD measurements using central dual energy X-ray absorptiometry from a prospective community-based cohort. The data were compared with other ethnic groups. Risk factors related to osteoporosis were analyzed. Results: Crude prevalence of osteoporosis in the whole subjects (40–79years old) was 13.1% for men and 24.3% for women by WHO criteria, at any site among lumbar spine, femoral neck or total hip. Standardized prevalence of osteoporosis between age of 50 and 79 at lumbar spine, femoral neck and total hip was 12.9%, 1.3% and 0.7% in men and 24.0%, 5.7% and 5.6% in women, respectively. The mean BMD of studied female subjects after age of 50 was not significantly different from that of Chinese but significantly lower than that of Japanese, non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican Americans. Risk of osteoporosis was significantly associated with the presence of past fracture history (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.08–1.94), smoking≥1 pack/day (OR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.01–2.62), menarche after age of 16 (OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.14–1.87), last delivery after age of 30 (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.20–2.09), more than three offspring (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.07–1.89), post-menopause status (OR, 7.32; 95% CI, 3.05–17.6), more than 17years since menopause (OR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.10–2.14), regular exercise of two to three times per week (OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.18–0.89), monthly income above 500,000won per household (OR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.45–0.92), college graduate (OR, 0.29; 95% CI, 0.13–0.63) and calcium intake≥627.5mg/day (OR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.43–0.98) after adjusting for age and BMI. Conclusion: The BMD and osteoporosis prevalence of Koreans are presented. Risk of osteoporosis was significantly associated with fracture history, smoking, reproductive history, regular exercise, income level, education background and calcium intake. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Context: Ghrelin is known to play a role in glucose metabolism and in beta-cell function. There are controversies regarding the role of ghrelin polymorphisms in diabetes and diabetes-related phenotypes., Objective: The objective of this study was to examine polymorphisms of the ghrelin gene in a Korean cohort and investigate associations between them and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes and its related phenotypes., Design and Patients: The ghrelin gene was sequenced to identify polymorphisms in 24 DNA samples. Common variants were then genotyped in 760 type 2 diabetic patients and 641 nondiabetic subjects. Genetic associations with diabetes-related phenotypes were also analyzed., Results: Nine polymorphisms were identified, and four common polymorphisms [g.-1500C>G, g.-1062G > C, g.-994C > T, g.+408C > A (Leu72Met)] were genotyped in a larger study. The genotype distributions of these four common polymorphisms in type 2 diabetes patients were similar to those of normal nondiabetic controls. However, these four common polymorphisms were variably associated with several diabetes-related phenotypes, such as high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, fasting plasma glucose, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance. In particular, subjects harboring g.-1062C were associated with a lower serum HDL cholesterol level after adjusting for other variables (P = 0.0004 or 0.01 after Bonferroni correction for 24 tests)., Conclusion: The aforementioned four common polymorphisms in the ghrelin gene were not found to be significantly associated with susceptibility to type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Korean population. However, the common polymorphism g.-1062G > C in the promoter region of the ghrelin gene was found to be significantly associated with serum HDL cholesterol levels.