Life-style, environmental and medical factors influencing peak bone mass in women

The aim of this study was to assess which life-style factors were associated with peak bone mass. One-thousand-two-hundred-and-twenty-seven pre-menopausal women aged between 45 and 49 yr had their bone density measured at the hip and spine. In addition, these women were given a postal questionnaire asking about life-style factors that may be associated with bone mineral density (BMD). Using stepwise multiple linear regression analysis we found that life-style or environmental factors explained a small but significant proportion of the variation in BMD. Statistically significant associations between anthropometric measures, exercise levels, fracture history and BMD were found. We also observed a positive association between self-reported numbers of miscarriages and BMD. This work supports the conclusions of smaller studies that risk factor analysis explains only a small amount of the variance in BMD.