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A pilot investigation of load-carrying on the head and bone mineral density in premenopausal, black African women

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An Erratum to this article was published on 29 October 2009

Abstract

Although the influence of weight-bearing activity on bone mass has been widely investigated in white women, few studies have been conducted in black, African populations. We investigated bone mineral density (BMD) in black South African women, with and without a history of load-carrying on the head. We also investigated whether load carrying may offer protection against low BMD in users of injectable progestin contraception (IPC). Participants were 32 black, South African women (22.4 ± 3.2 years). Load carrying history was determined by questionnaire and interview; participants were grouped as load carriers (LC; n = 18) or non-load carriers (NLC; n = 14). Ten women were using IPC and 6 were load-carriers. Total body (TB), lumbar spine (LS) and total hip (H) BMD were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. There were no differences in BMD between LC and NLC, and after controlling for age and BMI using two-tailed partial correlations. IPC users had lower BMD at all sites compared to non-IPC users (p < 0.05) and there were no associations between load carrying and BMD in this group. When IPC users were excluded from analysis, LC had higher LS BMD than NLC (p < 0.005). Correlations were found between the weight of load carried and LS BMD (r = 0.743, p < 0.005), and between years of load carrying and LS and TB BMD (r = 0.563, r = 0.538, respectively; both p < 0.05). Load carrying on the head may offer osteogenic benefits to the spine but these benefits did not appear in women using IPC.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and the University of Abertay Dundee who partially funded this project as well as Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the University of Cape Town South Africa for facilitating this research. We also thank the volunteers for their cooperation and participation in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Abertay, Dundee, DD1 1HG, UK

    Ray Lloyd

  2. Carnegie Research Institute, Leeds Metropolitan University, Headingley Campus, Leeds, England, LS6 3QS, UK

    Karen Hind, Sean Carroll & Carlton Cooke

  3. University of Cape Town, Newlands, 7725, South Africa

    Lisa K. Micklesfield

  4. Division of Medical Physics, Worsley Building, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    John G. Truscott

  5. Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa

    Bridget Parr & Simoene Davies

Authors
  1. Ray Lloyd
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  2. Karen Hind
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  3. Lisa K. Micklesfield
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  4. Sean Carroll
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  5. John G. Truscott
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  6. Bridget Parr
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  7. Simoene Davies
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  8. Carlton Cooke
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen Hind.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00774-009-0133-z

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Lloyd, R., Hind, K., Micklesfield, L.K. et al. A pilot investigation of load-carrying on the head and bone mineral density in premenopausal, black African women. J Bone Miner Metab 28, 185–190 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-009-0113-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-009-0113-3

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