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. 2020 Jul 8;17(14):4930.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17144930.

Bone Mineral Reference Values for Athletes 11 to 20 Years of Age

Irina Kalabiska  1 , Annamária Zsakai  2 , Robert M Malina  3 , Tamas Szabo  1
Affiliations

Bone Mineral Reference Values for Athletes 11 to 20 Years of Age

Irina Kalabiska et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Objectives: Training for sport is associated with the development of bone minerals, and the need for reference data based on athletes is often indicated. The purpose of this study was to develop a reference for bone mineral density (BMD) and content (BMC) specific for youth athletes of both sexes participating in several sports. Methods DEXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) was used for total body measurements of bone minerals in 1385 athletes 11 to 20 years, 1019 males and 366 females. The athletes were training in several sports at Hungarian academies. Reference values for total bone mineral density and bone mineral content, and also BMD excluding the head (total body less head, TBLH) were developed using the LMS chartmaker pro version 2.3.

Results: The centile distributions for BMD and BMC of the athletes differed significantly from those of the age- and sex-specific references for the general population. The youth athletes had higher BMD and BMC than those of the reference for the general population.

Conclusion: The potential utility of the DEXA reference for male and female youth athletes may assist in monitoring changes in the BMC and BMD associated with normal growth and maturation, and perhaps more importantly, may be useful in monitoring changes specific to different phases of sport-specific training protocols.

Keywords: DEXA; bone development; bone mineral; youth athletes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Total bone mineral density (BMD) in youth male and female athletes 11 to 20 years of age; percentiles (- - -) for athletes estimated with the LMS method, are plotted relative to the DEXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) reference (—) percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th; the 50th percentiles are in bold).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Total body less head (TBLH) BMD in youth male and female athletes 11 to 20 years of age; percentiles (- - -) for athletes, estimated with the LMS method, are plotted relative to the DEXA reference (—) percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th; the 50th percentiles are in bold).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Total BMC in youth male and female athletes 11 to 20 years of age; percentiles (- - -) for athletes, estimated with the LMS method, are plotted relative to the DEXA reference (—) percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th; the 50th percentiles are in bold).
Figure 4
Figure 4
BMD of two athletes, a female handball player and a male football player, is shown relative to the percentiles (- - -) for athletes and the DEXA reference (—) percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th; the 50th percentiles are in bold).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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