Impact of lifestyle and physical activity on bone mineral density in adults

OBJECTIVE: To determine the Effects of physical activity on bone mineral density in young adults. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Descriptive Cross-sectional Study was used in the study and data was collected through leading government, private, semi private Hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad from September 2018 to February 2019. A cross sectional study was conducted on 387 young adults of age ranging 18-35 years from different private and public sector hospitals of twin cities of Pakistan. Consent taken from every subject and self-structured questionnaire was filled by all the participants that include demographics information and physical activity questions. The inclusion criteria were the healthy adults and adults with any developmental disorder like neurological or musculoskeletal and adults with any comorbidity were excluded. The data was entered and analyzed by SPSS version 23. RESULTS: The total n= 229 subjects had normal body mass index; (18.5-24.9Kg/m2), 65 subjects are over-weighted (25-29.9Kg/m2). The major frequency of young adults has similar BMD level compared to WHO classification for BMD. Lower physical activity levels attribute an adverse influence on bone health. There is positive correlation between physical activity and bone mineral density (r=0.015) CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that physical activity during growth plays positive role in increasing BMD. In young athletes the physical activity and nutritional factors influence the BMD. KEY WORDS: Adults, Bone Density, Physical activity