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EXERCISE IN THE YEARS PRECEDING PUBERTY INCREASES BONE MASS FOR LIFE

Seattle (Oct. 1, 2004)—The amount of exercise children engage in during the years before puberty increases their bone mass and could possibly prevent osteoporosis in later life, said researchers at the 26th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). The data came from the Pediatric Osteoporosis Prevention (POP) study, which is part of the osteoporosis research program at Malmö University Hospital in Malmö, Sweden.

Sweden reports the highest incidence of osteoporosis-related fractures in the world. Although about 70 percent of the bone mass people can build during their lifetimes is under genetic control, about 30 percent can be influenced by external factors, including physical activity.

Christian Linden, M.D., and his team evaluated the effect of an exercise intervention program that POP researchers conducted in Swedish elementary schools. One hundred twenty-four seven-year- olds in a school outside Malmö were given an exercise program for 40 minutes every day. A control group of 99 healthy age- and gender-matched children participated in the general Swedish elementary school exercise program that is given 60 to 90 minutes per week. Bone mineral density was measured in each group at baseline and after three years by dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA).

There were no differences in height, weight, lean mass, fat content, or bone mass between the two groups at baseline. At the three-year follow-up, boys in the POP exercise program had a higher annual gain in bone mass in their spine than boys in the control group. Girls showed a similar effect at most of the measured sites, including total body bone mineral density and bone mineral density in the spine, femoral neck, and leg. The discrepancies between the study population and the control group remained after adjusting for age, weight gain, and pubertal development during the study.

The researchers said their results confirm that an extended exercise program for children starting at age seven and continuing for three years seems to increase the accrual of pediatric bone mass. Previous studies of the impact of exercise on children’s bone mass accrual had been no longer than 20 months. The researchers maintain that data from longer term studies like theirs suggest that exercise can increase bone mass accrual over several years, and increased time in physical education classes may prevent osteoporosis in later years.

For more information, visit www.asbmr.org.

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