Prevalence of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis among rheumatology patients in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The prevalence of glucocorticosteroid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) is well established in higher income countries. There are limited studies showing a wide prevalence of GIOP in Africa. Prospective studies are needed on GIOP in African rheumatology patients to implement appropriate management algorithms. Purpose The prevalence of glucocorticosteroid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) is well established in developed countries, but little is known about GIOP in African adult patients with inflammatory rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). This study aimed to determine the prevalence of GIOP and osteoporotic fracture risk in African patients with inflammatory RMDs according to radiographic and bone mineral density (BMD) findings. Methods PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and African Index Medicus were searched up to 31 December 2020. Heterogeneity was assessed using I-2 statistic across the included studies. A random-effects model was applied to estimate the pooled effect size across studies. All statistical analyses were performed using STATA (TM) version 14 software. The study was registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42021256252. Results In this meta-analysis, a total of 7 studies with 780 participants, stratified by geographical region were included. The pooled prevalence of GIOP based on BMD data was 47.7% (95% CI 32.9-62.8) with 52.2% (95% CI 36.5-67.6) in North African countries and 15.4% (95% 1.9-45.4%) in South Africa with a high heterogeneity (I-2 = 93.3%, p = 0.018). There was no data from the rest of African countries. We were unable to complete the meta-analysis of osteoporotic fractures due to the lack of available data. Conclusion This study revealed that the prevalence of GIOP varies significantly in Africa. There is no information, however, for most of Africa, and further prospective studies are needed to develop context-specific GIOP preventive strategies in patients with RMDs.