EAST LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan State University study found that certain college female athletes – in particular swimmers and divers, and runners – have lower bone density compared to other athletes, something that could put them at future risk of stress fractures and other bone injuries if the density levels continue to drop.
The findings are detailed in the October edition of the Journal of Athletic Training.
In the study, kinesiology professor Jim Pivarnik and colleagues compared bone density levels among a variety of female athletes, including those participating in gymnastics, softball, cross country, track, field hockey, soccer, crew, and swimming and diving.
“The good news here is none of the athletes had osteopenia, which means bone density is still at normal levels,” Pivarnik said. “But there were differences according to sport, and if a given athlete has a tendency for stress fractures or similar injuries, a lower than average value may be meaningful to her sports medicine physician.”
Osteopenia refers to bone mineral density that is lower than normal peak density, but is not low enough to be classified as osteoporosis. Not everyone who is diagnosed with osteopenia will develop osteoporosis.
Pivarnik said it was “mildly surprising” that running - a high impact sport - had bone mineral density values that were lower than average. Those levels were similar to what was found in swimming and diving – a low-impact sport. However, the researchers did not have sufficient information to determine the reason.
“We’re not sure why the runners have such low values,” he said. “Perhaps it’s related to diet, or amount of calories spent during exercise, but we don’t know for sure.”
The potential danger of lower bone density levels at the age of these athletes – approximately 20 years old – is that it could set the stage for problems later in life, including an increased risk of stress fractures and even osteoporosis if the bone density values continue to decrease.
“Generally speaking, college athletes are not thinking about bone health,” said Lanay Mudd, a doctoral student in the Department of Kinesiology and the paper’s lead author. “But this is the time in their lives when they can be increasing their bone density.”
A woman’s “window of opportunity” to increase bone density usually happens between the ages of 14 and 22, she said.
Meanwhile, more research in the area of decreased bone density is needed because, Pivarnik said, “there are no clinical trials out there. It’s all observational or anecdotal evidence.”
“What makes our study so unique is we had so many different sports represented,” Mudd said. “Past studies have focused just on runners or just on gymnasts and have had a wide age range of athletes. This is one of the largest studies ever done on college-aged athletes that included several sports.”
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