Association of Physical Performance Measures With Bone Mineral Density in Postmenopausal Women

Lindsey C, Brownbill RA, Bohannon RA, Ilich JZ. Association of physical performance measures with bone mineral density in postmenopausal women. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2005;86:1102–7. To investigate the association between physical performance measures and bone mineral density (BMD) in older women. Cross-sectional analysis. University research laboratory. Healthy postmenopausal women (N=116; mean age ± standard deviation, 68.3±6.8y) in self-reported good health who were not taking medications known to affect bone, including hormone replacement therapy. Not applicable. Anthropometrics and BMD of the hip, spine, whole body, and forearm. Physical performance measures included normal and brisk 8-m gait speed, normal step length (NSL), brisk step length (BSL), timed 1-leg stance (OLS), timed sit-to-stand (STS), and grip strength. NSL, BSL, normal gait speed, brisk gait speed, OLS, and grip strength correlated significantly with several skeletal sites ( r range, .19–.38; P