The Vietnam Osteoporosis Study: Rationale and design

ObjectivesOsteoporosis and fracture impose a significant health care burden on the contemporary populations in developing countries. The Vietnam Osteoporosis Study (VOS) sought to assess the burden of osteoporosis and its comorbidities in men and women.MethodsThe study was designed as a population-based family investigation in which families were randomly recruited from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Individuals were assessed for bone health, including bone mineral density (BMD) and body composition and trabecular and cortical bone properties by pQCT (peripheral quantitative computed tomography). Fasting blood samples were obtained for the analysis of plasma glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, and bone turnover markers. Genomic DNA extraction from whole blood samples for further genetic and genomic analyses.ResultsWe have recruited more than 4157 individuals from 817 families. The average age of participants was 51, with approximately 45% of the individuals aged 50 years and older. Approximately 3% of participants were obese (body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m2), and 21% were overweight. Notably, 11% of participants aged 40 years and older were diabetic. Among those aged 50 years and older, approximately 14% of women and 5% of men had osteoporosis (i.e., femoral neck BMD T-scores ≤ -2.5). There were modest correlations between volumetric BMD and areal BMD.ConclusionsVOS is a major bone research project in Vietnam aimed at comprehensively documenting the burden osteoporosis, its co-occurrence of chronic diseases, and their underlying etiologies. The Study will make important contributions to the literature of bone health worldwide.