Bone status and fracture rates in two regions of Yugoslavia

Abstract

Bone status and fracture rates were evaluated in two Yugoslav populations with very different dietary habits. In district A (Podravina) the daily calcium intake was about twice that in district B (Istra). There were similar but smaller differences in the intakes of other nutrients. In district B metacarpal cortical width was reduced in all age groups of both sexes but the difference tended to decrease with age. The proximal femur fracture rate was higher in district B than district A but there was no difference between the forearm fracture rates in the two districts. Our results confirm that bone mass at any age is clearly the result of age and sex and most probably other genetically determined factors but also show that this expression is nutrition related. The data suggest that nutrition (in particular the calcium intake) is an important determinant of bone mass in young adults but seems to have little effect on age-related bone loss in either males or females. The main determinant of cortical bone mass in the elderly seems to be the cortical bone mass in middle life. The proximal femur fractures of old people reflect declining cortical bone mass but the distal forearm fractures of middle-aged women are unrelated to cortical bone mass or nutritional status.

A Pediatric Bone Mass Scan Has Poor Ability to Predict Adult Bone Mass: A 28-Year Prospective Study in 214 Children

“…Distal forearm bone mineral content (BMC; g), bone mineral density (BMD; g/cm 2 ), and bone width (cm) were measured by single-photon absorptiometry (SPA) in 120 boys with a mean age of 9.9 years (range 3-17) and 94 girls with a mean age of 10.7 years (range [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The children were included from three published cohort studies between the years 1979-1981: 48 boys and 28 girls with a previous fracture 16 , 31 boys and 25 girls with premature birth 17 and 41 boys and 43 girls from a healthy control cohort within same ages [16][17][18] .…”

“…There are no prospective studies that have followed bone mass from young adulthood into the ages when osteoporosis becomes a problem of magnitude. However calculations have inferred that 50% of the variance in BMD at age 65 could be predicted by peak bone mass [3][4] it has also been shown that individuals with high bone mass at age 30 are likely to have high bone mass also at age 70 5 .…”

Biodisponibilidade do cálcio dietético

“…Em geral, quanto maior a necessidade e menor o fornecimento dietético, mais eficiente será a absorção. O aumento das necessidades do elemento encontrado em situações como crescimento, gravidez, (12). Como o leite e outros produtos lácteos são as fontes principais do elemento, as crianças que não os consomem, ou os ingerem em quantidades limitadas, estão em risco de deficiência de Ca (13).…”

The realization of a project aimed at reducing the plasmatic lipid level in a large Italian population improves the mean calcium daily intake: the Brisighella Study

“…Moreover, an analysis of studies evaluating the effect of exercise on bone density (Specker, 1996) showed that, at least for spine bone mineral density, a calcium intake of more than 1000 mgaday is necessary before exercise can exert a positive effect on bones. Finally, both crosssectional (Matkovic et al, 1979) and perspective (Holbrook et al, 1988) studies showed a higher risk of hip fractures in subjects with lower calcium intakes, while guidelines for osteoporosis treatment and prevention suggests dietary calcium supplementations (Castelo-Branco, 1998). Various studies (Scaccini et al, 1992;Howarth et al, 1995) have tried to understand what factors in¯uence calcium intake.…”