The role of aging, body mass index and estrogen on symptomatic lumbar osteoarthritis in post-menopausal women

Background: Low back pain is a common complaint which is always found in old age due to degeneration process. Degeneration process of spine, especially in the lumbar region is called lumbar osteoarthritis (OA). Various factors are thought to be the cause of lumbar OA, including primarily due to hormonal changes of estrogen and increase of age and body mass index in postmenopausal women. Methods: The purpose of this study is to determine the role of hormonal changes pathogenesis in lumbar osteoarthritis in postmenopausal women and its correlation with age and body mass index. Cross sectional analytic method had been conducted to determine the role of age, body mass index and estrogen for lumbar OA in postmenopausal women. The study was conducted in Sanglah General Hospital from October 2015 until March 2016 by anthropometric measures and blood samples. Results: From 196 samples showed that the estrogen deficiency in postmenopausal women have a correlation with the symptomatic lumbar OA (r=0.252, p = 0.000). While age and the body mass index in postmenopausal women has a correlation with symptomatic lumbar OA (r = 0.150 and 0.198, p = 0.000 and 0.013). Conclusions: The aging process, body mass index and estrogen deficiency correlated with the symptomatic OA lumbar in post-menopausal women.