Physical Activity and Bone Disease
An estimated 3 million people in the UK suffer from osteoporosis,
1 in 3 women and 1 in 12 men in the UK are at risk of having
osteoporosis when they are over the age of 50. Every 3 minutes
someone has a fracture due to osteoporosis.
One-third of over-65’s and a half of over-85’s fall each year.
Approximately half of all fallers who fracture their hips are never
functional walkers again and one in five will die within six months.
- Physical activity can increase bone mineral density in young people, maintain it in young adults and slow its decline in old age.
- Regular weight-bearing physical activity (such as walking, dancing, jogging) is essential for normal skeletal development during childhood and adolescence and for achieving and maintaining peak bone mass in adulthood.
- Physical activity, particularly resistance-strengthening exercise appears to be protective against falling and fractures among adults in later life by increasing muscle strength, coordination and balance.
- Strength training and other forms of exercise in older women reduce the risk of hip fracture by up to 50%.
SOURCES:
- National Osteoporosis Society (2002). Primary Care Strategy for Osteoporosis and Falls. A Framework for health improvement programmes implementing the National Service Framework for Older People. See National Osteoporosis Society website: http://www.nos.org.uk/PDF/PCGDoc2002.pdf.
- Spirduso (1996). Physical Dimensions of Ageing. Illnois: Human Kinetics.
- US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, The Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. (1996) Physical Activity and Health: A report of the Surgeon General. Pittsburg: CDC
- Ibid. See also, Grisso JA et al. Risk factors for hip fracture in men. Hip fracture study group. American Journal of Epidemiology, 1997, 145:786-793; Gillespie ND, McMurdo M. Falls in old age: inevitable or preventable? Scottish Medical Journal, 1998, 43:101-103; Kujala U et al. Physical activity and osteoporotic hip fracture risk in men. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2000, 160:705-708; Gregg E, Pereira M, Caspersen CJ. Physical Activity, falls and fractures among older adults: a review of the epidemiologic evidence. Journal od the American Geriatrics Society, 2000, 48:883-893.
