Association between Self-Perceived Health, Physical Activity, and BMD in Aging Men and Women

ABSTRACT

The association between general health and bone mineral density (BMD, g/cm2) is not well studied. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the relationships between BMD, self-perceived health, and lifestyle factors in a well-defined cohort of middle-aged men and women. The cohort studied consisted of 1595 women and men with a mean age of 57 years at baseline (range 30-74 yr), who completed a comprehensive health survey within the Västerbotten Intervention Project. BMD was measured at the femoral neck and lumbar spine a mean of 5 years later using Dual Energy X-ray absorptiometry. After adjusting for age, weight, sex, and follow-up time, self-perceived health (Beta = 0.08, p<0.001), training (Beta = 0.11, p<0.001), snow shoveling (Beta = 0.07, p=0.001), and smoking more than 15 cigarettes per day (Beta = -0.05, p=0.04) were found to be related to femoral neck BMD. Only self-perceived health, age, and weight were found to be related to spine BMD. Self-perceived health was also found to be related to some of the lifestyle factors that were significantly related to BMD, such as training (r = 0.14, p<0.001) and snow shoveling (Beta = 0.15, p<0.001). In summary, several lifestyle factors related to self-perceived health were also found to be related to bone mineral density in a well-defined cohort of middle-aged men and women.