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. 2020 Sep/Oct;12(5):441-448.
doi: 10.1177/1941738120931755. Epub 2020 Jul 14.

Physical Fitness and Bone Health in Young Athletes and Nonathletes

Duarte Henriques-Neto  1   2 , João P Magalhães  1 , Megan Hetherington-Rauth  1 , Diana A Santos  1 , Fátima Baptista  1 , Luís B Sardinha  1
Affiliations

Physical Fitness and Bone Health in Young Athletes and Nonathletes

Duarte Henriques-Neto et al. Sports Health. 2020 Sep/Oct.

Abstract

Background: Physical activity (PA) and physical fitness (PF) are crucial for bone health. However, children participating in competitive sports with high PA are at a greater risk of fracture from trauma or overuse. Given the importance of bone development during adolescence, associations between commonly used physical fitness tests with distal third radius (R-SoS) and midshaft tibia (T-SoS) speed of sound by quantitative ultrasound were assessed in adolescent athletes and nonathletes.

Hypothesis: The relationship between physical fitness tests and R-SoS and T-SoS will differ depending on sex and athletic status.

Study design: Cross-sectional study.

Level of evidence: Level 3.

Methods: Physical fitness of 285 boys (156 athletes) and 311 girls (74 athletes) aged 10 to 18 years was assessed through strength, speed, agility, and cardiorespiratory tests. Linear regression was used to assess the associations of physical fitness tests with R-SoS and T-SoS.

Results: For boys, favorable associations were observed between physical fitness tests with R-SoS in athletes and T-SoS in both athletes and nonathletes (P < 0.05). For nonathlete girls, favorable associations were found for handgrip (R-SoS and T-SoS, both P < 0.05), whereas the progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run, vertical jump, speed at 20 m and 40 m were only favorably associated with T-SoS. For athlete girls, the association between handgrip (P = 0.03), vertical jump, and 4 × 10 m shuttle run (P < 0.05) with T-SoS was significantly related to a bone outcome.

Conclusion: The handgrip test and vertical jump were associated with T-SoS in boys and girls independent of sport status. These results suggest that physical fitness is associated with bone health in adolescents, particularly boys, and that the relationship between physical fitness and bone may differ depending on sex and athletic status.

Clinical relevance: Physical fitness tests are simple, easy-to-use tools for monitoring bone health and should be used by sport and health professsionals to promote healthy sport participation and prevent bone injuries.

Keywords: PACER; adolescent; bone health; muscular fitness; quantitative ultrasound.

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Conflict of interest statement

The following authors declared potential conflicts of interest: This study was conducted at Interdisciplinary Center of the Study of Human Performance (CIPER), I&D 472 (UID/DTP/00447/2019), Faculty of Human Kinetics of University of Lisbon, supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, the Portuguese Ministry of Science. D.H.-N. is supported by a grant from Comité Olímpico de Portugal (doctoral scholarship).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Overall associations of R-SoS (radial distal third speed of sound) and T-SoS (tibial midshaft speed of sound) with physical fitness tests. H. Jump, horizontal jump; NA, no significant association; V. Jump, vertical jump; +, positive and significant association.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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