Association of sarcopenia and physical activity with femur bone mineral density in elderly women

PURPOSE This study examined the association of femur bone mineral density (BMD) with body composition and physical activity in elderly women. METHODS This was a cross sectional study involving 119 women with mean age of 73.1±5.5 years. Body composition parameters including body mass index (BMI), percent of body fat (%BF), appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) index and femur BMD was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Physical activity was assessed by the uniaxial accelerometer for 7 consecutive days including weekends. Based on femur BMD T-scores, subjects were classified as optimal group, osteopenia group, and osteoporosis group. Based on ASM index, subjects were classified as normal group and sarcopenia group. According to WHO recommendations of physical activity for elderly, the subjects were classified as active group or inactive group. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine the odds ratio (OR) for osteopenia and osteoporosis. RESULTS There were linear decreases for body composition parameters including weight (P=.023), BMI (P=.039), lean mass (P=.032), ASM index (P=.007) and physical activity parameters including daily of step (P<.001), low intensity physical activity (P<.001), moderate intensity physical activity (P=.001) across femur BMD levels. Compared to the normal group (OR=1), the sarcopenia group had a significantly higher OR (OR=4.823; P=.042), and the inactive group had a significantly higher OR (OR=5.478; P=.005) having osteopenia and osteoporosis when compared to the active group (OR=1). CONCLUSION The findings of this study suggested that physical activity along with a healthy nutrition should be promoted as a preventive strategy against osteopenia and osteoporosis in elderly women.