Recent questions have been raised about the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), especially in relation to bone mineral density (BMD). Purposes of this study were to determine the BMD of a group of religious sisters and to explore the differences in use of HRT for those with normal BMD and those with BMD levels indicative of osteopenia and osteoporosis. The epidemiological Web of Causation served as a framework for this study. It is a secondary analysis of the database established by Bautch and Gaspar (2003) for their study of health promotion practices and disease occurrences among a select group of religious sisters from the Midwestern United States. The homogeneity of the sample provided control of lifestyle variables (ie. celibacy, alcohol use and smoking) that may be confounding. Data from the primary study for the years 2000 through 2003 were used for this study. Variables studied included demographic variables and the BMD and use of HRT as recorded on the chart. One hundred fifty subjects had complete data for analysis of this study. The number of BMD results recorded on the chart steadily increased over the 4 years with 42 subjects having BMD reported in 2003. An ANOVA indicated that there was a significant difference between the use of HRT and the results of the BMD (F=2.927; p=.05). Those subjects with normal BMD (x=11.12; sd 17.24) results had been taking HRT longer than those with osteopenia (x=5.98; sd 13.53) and osteoporosis (4.41; sd=10.89). Despite the recent negative press in regards to HRT the noted differences in the mean number of months of taking a HRT for the three levels of BMD results (normal, osteopenia and osteoporosis) indicates need for further exploration of these variables. Further exploration of other variables associated with these differences is essential.
Session #1223 - Graduate Student Poster Session
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)