Health survey to screen Inuit for osteoporosis

Pollutants may be partly to blame for a high rate of osteoporosis in Inuit women in Greenland, say scientists who are now trying to determine whether their Canadian counterparts are also losing bone mass.

Forty-five nurses, doctors and support staff are travelling by boat to Inuit communities in Nunavik, screening for bone mass loss as part of a major health study.

Osteoporosis, which leads to the loss of bone mass and increases the risk of fractures, mainly affects women over the age of 50.

In Greenland, researchers were surprised to find that the rates of the disease are higher than average among Inuit women.

"We did a study with Greenlandic doctors, and basically we found that compared to a group of 5,000 women in Quebec City, the frequency of osteoporosis was 19 per cent compared to 7 per cent," said Dr. Eric Dewailly of the National Institute of Public Health in Quebec .

"It was like two-and-a-half times higher, so it's very high. That was not known."

Dewailly, a professor of medicine at Laval University, said there are several risk factors, including:

• A lack of calcium intake.
• Contaminants in the Arctic food chain.

He said PCBs and dioxins are the main concern since they affect the hormone estrogen, which protects against bone loss.

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Dewailly and Suzanne Bruneau of Laval University's hospital want to find out if Inuit women in Canada over the age of 35 have the same high rates of osteoporosis as in Greenland.

They say it's important to screen women for osteoporosis because the disease can be prevented.

The screening test checks bone density. "It takes a few minutes and it's really easy," said Bruneau.

The researchers say they hope to expand their study to Baffin Island after completing communities in Nunavik.