Muscle Strength Is Significantly Associated With Calcaneal Bone Mineral Density Among Children And Adolescents From Colombia: A Cross-sectional Study

PURPOSE: Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is currently the gold standard for the assessment of bone mineral density (BMD). Quantitative ultrasound (QUS), on the other hand, is a radiation-free alternative for the assessment of bone strength in the paediatric population. Relationship between BMD and muscular fitness outcomes in children and adolescents have not been published in a Latin-American population. In this cross-sectional study we aimed to investigate the association of muscular fitness with BMD at the calcaneal in Colombia children and adolescent aged 9 to 17.9 years. METHODS: Cross sectional study. A sample of 1,001 healthy Colombian youth (boys n=445 and girls n=556), participated in the study. BUA (in decibels per megahertz) was measured using Achilles device (Lunar, Madison, WI). Three components of field-based muscular fitness were measured: handgrip, vertical jump and standing long jump test. RESULTS: After adjusting for sex and age, we found a significant association of handgrip with BMD at calcaneal (r = 0.651). Furthermore, we observed significant associations of vertical jump (r = 0.341) and standing long jump (r = 0.415), p < .001 with BMD. CONCLUSIONS: We found that muscular fitness was associated with BMD in children and adolescents. Further prospective studies are needed to further investigate the association between muscular fitness and BMD in youth population.