Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Mar;9(3):194-200.
doi: 10.1530/EC-19-0534.

Association between dietary calcium intake and BMD in children and adolescents

Kaiyu Pan  1 , Chengyue Zhang  2 , Xiaocong Yao  3 , Zhongxin Zhu  4
Affiliations

Association between dietary calcium intake and BMD in children and adolescents

Kaiyu Pan et al. Endocr Connect. 2020 Mar.

Abstract

Aim: Ensuring adequate calcium (Ca) intake during childhood and adolescence is critical to acquire good peak bone mass to prevent osteoporosis during older age. As one of the primary strategies to build and maintain healthy bones, we aimed to determine whether dietary Ca intake has an influence on bone mineral density (BMD) in children and adolescents.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study composed of 10,092 individuals from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Dietary Ca intake and total BMD were taken as independent and dependent variables, respectively. To evaluate the association between them, we conducted weighted multivariate linear regression models and smooth curve fittings.

Results: There was a significantly positive association between dietary Ca intake and total BMD. The strongest association was observed in 12-15 year old whites, 8-11 year old and 16-19 year old Mexican Americans, and 16-19 year old individuals from other race/ethnicity, in whom each quintile of Ca intake was increased. We also found that there were significant inflection points in females, blacks, and 12-15 year old adolescents group, which means that their total BMD would decrease when the dietary Ca intake was more than 2.6-2.8 g/d.

Conclusions: This cross-sectional study indicated that a considerable proportion of children and adolescents aged 8-19 years would attain greater total BMD if they increased their dietary Ca intake. However, higher dietary Ca intake (more than 2.6-2.8 g/d) is associated with lower total BMD in females, blacks, and 12-15 year old adolescents group.

Keywords: NHANES; adolescent; bone mineral density; child; dietary calcium.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The illustrated curved line relation between dietary Ca intake and total bone mineral density. (A) Each black point represents a sample. (B) The area between two blue dotted lines is expressed as a 95% CI. Each point shows the magnitude of the dietary Ca intake and is connected to form a continuous line.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The correlation between dietary Ca intake and total bone mineral density, stratified by sex.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The correlation between dietary Ca intake and total bone mineral density, stratified by race/ethnicity.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The correlation between dietary Ca intake and total bone mineral density, stratified by age.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Hodges JK, Cao S, Cladis DP, Weaver CM. Lactose intolerance and bone health: the challenge of ensuring adequate calcium intake. Nutrients 2019. 11 E718 ( 10.3390/nu11040718) - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rizzoli R, Bianchi ML, Garabedian M, McKay HA, Moreno LA. Maximizing bone mineral mass gain during growth for the prevention of fractures in the adolescents and the elderly. Bone 2010. 46 294–305. ( 10.1016/j.bone.2009.10.005) - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mensink GB, Fletcher R, Gurinovic M, Huybrechts I, Lafay L, Serra-Majem L, Szponar L, Tetens I, Verkaik-Kloosterman J, Baka A, et al Mapping low intake of micronutrients across Europe. British Journal of Nutrition 2013. 110 755–773. ( 10.1017/S000711451200565X) - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ross AC, Manson JE, Abrams SA, Aloia JF, Brannon PM, Clinton SK, Durazo-Arvizu RA, Gallagher JC, Gallo RL, Jones G, et al The 2011 report on dietary reference intakes for calcium and vitamin D from the Institute of Medicine: what clinicians need to know. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2011. 96 53–58. ( 10.1210/jc.2010-2704) - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Huncharek M, Muscat J, Kupelnick B. Impact of dairy products and dietary calcium on bone-mineral content in children: results of a meta-analysis. Bone 2008. 43 312–321. ( 10.1016/j.bone.2008.02.022) - DOI - PubMed