comparison of bone mineral density in menopause women athletes in weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing sports

the current study which is an expacto one,has been carried out with the purpose of comparing the bone mineral density(bmd) of menopause women athletes who were professional at weight bearing sports and non-weight bearing sports.the participants were all menopause women athletes of tehran that 20 of them were aimfully put in two groups: the weight bearing sports group(handball and basketball; n=10)with average age of 54.50 ±2.7 , height of 163.60 ±4.69 m,and weight of 70.50±9.02 kg; and the non-weight bearing sports group(swimming;n=10) with average age of 54.80±1.54,height of 159±5.29 m, and weight of 64.55±4.10 kg. the bmd and bmc of the athletes’ femur and l2 _l4 lumbar were measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry(dexa); and the data was analyzed by spss18 software,the independent t-test and analysis of covariance. the results showed that the bmd of femur neck, l2 _l4 lumbar and total hip(p≤0.001)and femur trochanter (p≤0.05).in weight bearing sports group have a significant difference in comparison with those of non-weight bearing ones. the bmc levels of the weight bearing ones in femur neck, l2 _l4 lumbar, total hip and femur trochanter were higher than those of non-weight bearing ones.also the bmc levels of weight bearing group in femur neck,femur trochanter(p≤0.001) and total hip(p≤0.05),had a significant difference with the non-weight bearing group.the bmc levels of the weight bearing group in femur neck, femur trochanter and total hip were higher than those of non-weight bearing ones. but in the bmc levels of l2 _l4 lumbar there was not a significant difference between the two groups.according to these results we can conclude that weight bearing sports _with high levels of mechanical stress_ in comparison with non-weight bearing sports with lower levels of mechanical stress can lead to more increase in bmd and bmc levels of women, in their middle ages and menopause periode.