Association of dietary live microbe intake with prevalence of osteoporosis in US postmenopausal women: a cross-sectional study

The association between live microbe intake and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women remains unknown. The research findings indicated that an increased intake of live microbes through dietary sources was associated with a low prevalence of osteoporosis among postmenopausal women.

To investigate the relationship between the consumption of live microbes in the diet and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.

A cross-sectional investigation using data obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was conducted. Participants were classified into three groups by using the dietary live microbe classification system developed by Sanders. Dual x-ray absorptiometry was used to measure body mineral density, and osteoporosis was diagnosed according to the World Health Organization criteria. We conducted a crude and adjusted multivariate logistic regression analysis, and utilized the restricted cubic splines model to assess the correlation between the consumption of live microbes in the diet and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.

A total of 1378 women who had undergone menopause were enrolled in the study. After controlling for potential covariates, individuals with a high consumption of live microbes in their diet exhibited a notably low prevalence of osteoporosis in comparison to those with a low intake of dietary live microbes (odd ratio: 0.46, 95% confidence interval: 0.23, 0.93, P = 0.03). Subgroup analysis showed the stability of the results, and restricted cubic splines showed an approximate L-shape curve.

In this research, a higher consumption of live microbes in the diet was linked to a low prevalence of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.