The Association of Extreme Body Weight with Bone Mineral Density in Saudi Children

Abstract

Objective: The objective to investigate the effect of extreme body weight; obesity and undernutrition, on bone mineral density (BMD). Methodology: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study carried between January and June of 2019, and included 224 children and adolescents without any comorbidities or chronic disease. Important data collected included anthropometrics, past medical and surgical history, history of medication intake, level of physical activity and pubertal assessment. Data entry and analysis were conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 24. Results: Gender distribution showed 48.2% were male and 51.8% were female. The mean age was 9.98 ± 3.5 years. Mean weight was 34.89 ± 18.2 kg. Mean BMD z-score was − 1.64 ± 1.4. Weight was considered to significantly correlate with BMD stature at a P = 0.014. Subjects who were underweight showed a lower mean BMD z-score of <−2 than those who were overweight/obese (mean BMD z-score = −1.60). Conclusion: Both extremes of weight are considered a significant risk factor for the development of low BMD in children. We recommend the early recognition of weight aberrations and consequent aggressive intervention with strict lifestyle modifications to promote the development of maximum peak bone mass.

Assessing bone mineral density in children and adolescents living with HIV and on treatment with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate: a systematic review

“…The evaluation of BMDz and BMCz in children and adolescents needs to consider physiological and behavioral variables that can influence these outcomes, such as menarche in girls, sexual maturation, growth spurt, diet, physical activity, solar exposure, nutritional status, ethnicity, and bone age. 4,5,6,8,42,[47][48][49][50][51] Furthermore, when evaluating children and adolescents with HIV, it can be viewed that there are additional confounding variables related to infection: viral load, CD4+, and therapeutic factors. 52,53 Only Bunders et al 32 considered ethnicity as an independent variable in the regression analyses.…”

“…The importance of assessing nutritional status occurs because both obesity and malnutrition are relevant factors for the reduction of BMD in children. 51 Only one of the nine studies did not present height and weight Z-scores. 32 In studies with available data, 13,30,31,[33][34][35][36][37] the mean or median of these measurements at baseline were negative, indicating that young people with HIV were shorter and lighter than healthy people, but the mean and/or median were within the limits considered for eutrophic individuals.…”