The Influence of Anthropometry and Body Composition on Children’s Bone Health: The Childhood Health, Activity and Motor Performance School (The CHAMPS) Study, Denmark

Abstract

Overweight, physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour have become increasing problems during the past decade. Increased sedentary behaviour may change the body composition (BC) by increasing the fat mass relative to the lean mass (LM). These changes may influence bone health to describe how anthropometry and BC predict the development of the bone accruement. The longitudinal study is a part of The CHAMPS study-DK. Children were DXA scanned at baseline and at 2-year follow-up. BC (LM, BF %) and BMC, BMD and BA were measured. The relationship between bone traits, anthropometry and BC was analysed by multilevel regression analyses. Of the invited children, 742/800 (93%) accepted to participate. Of these, 682/742 (92%) participated at follow-up. Mean (range) of age at baseline was 9.5 years (7.7-12.1). Height, BMI, LM and BF % predicted bone mineral accrual and bone size positively and independently. Height and BMI are both positive predictors of bone accruement. LM is a more precise predictor of bone traits than BF % in both genders. The effects of height and BMI and LM on bone accruement are nearly identical in the two genders, while changes in BF % have different but positive effects on bone accretion in both boys and girls.

Assessing the genetic correlations between early growth parameters and bone mineral density: A polygenic risk score analysis

“…Obesity during childhood was associated with increased vertebral bone density and increased whole body bone mass [45]. Moreover, CBMI can predict bone mineral accrual and bone size positively and independently [44]. Additionally, we also observed the positive genetic correlation between ABMI and CBMI.…”

“…Childhood is crucial period for bone growth, accounting for about half of the bone mass achieved in adulthood [43]. Thus, CBMI can be used as a determinant for adult bone mass and the BMD values [44–46]. Obesity during childhood was associated with increased vertebral bone density and increased whole body bone mass [45].…”

The Impact of Fat and Obesity on Bone Microarchitecture and Strength in Children

“…Others have suggested that fat mass positively predicts either bone size in isolation [73], or improves bone size and mineral content independently during early childhood [71]. Whatever the influence of fat mass on skeletal development, bone mass and additionally bone strength are more strongly influenced by an increase in lean mass in overweight children [64, 74]. However, stating that excess fat mass in childhood has a negative or positive impact on skeletal development may well be overly simplistic and outcomes may vary according to age and pubertal development.…”

Relationship between the Changes over Time of Bone and Muscle Health in Children and Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…We additionally found, by handsearch, 3 relevant studies. From these 1892 articles, after a long process of review and discussion (Figure 1), fifteen studies were finally included [11,22,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37], detailed as follows: -10 studies examining the link between evolution of lean mass and evolution of bone mass; -4 studies focusing on the link between evolution of muscle strength and evolution of bone mass; -1 study dealing with the link between evolution of physical performance and evolution of bone mass.…”

“…The population of interest was children for 5 studies [25][26][27]31,32], and the population of interest of the other studies were in female around the menopause age or the older age. With regards to the gender of the participants, 10 studies only focused on female subjects, 2 studies on male subjects only [27,38], and 3 other studies consisted of a population of both men and women [31, 32,36]. The duration of follow-up of these longitudinal studies ranges from 1 year to 10 years.…”