the effect of professional sports participation on bone content and density in elite female athletes

Background: the role of exercise in osteoporosis prevention has been proven. nevertheless, there is no consensus about the types of sports, especially at professional levels. non-impact sports such as swimming may have a negative effect or no effect. objectives: thus, the present study aimed to compare the effect of different sports on bone mineral content (bmc) and bone mineral density (bmd) of elite female athletes. methods: this was a cross-sectional study consisting of 48 athletes in five groups of long-distance running, volleyball, basketball, swimming (n = 12 for each), and ten control subjects. for measuring the lumbar spine (l2 - l4) and proximal femur (femoral neck, trochanter, and ward’s triangle), the dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (dexa) method was applied. results: indicated that the running, basketball, and volleyball groups had a significantly higher lumbar spine and proximal femur bmd than the swimming and control groups (p < 0.05). running resulted in significantly higher lumbar spine bmc compared to volleyball, basketball, swimming, and control groups, respectively (p < 0.01), while basketball had higher proximal femur bmc than running and controls (p < 0.01). the z-score of the lumbar spine in the running was significantly higher than in basketball, swimming, and controls (p < 0.05), while basketball had a significantly higher femur neck z-score than volleyball, running, and controls (p < 0.001). finally, the swimmers had significantly higher z-scores in the lumbar and the proximal femur than non-athletes (p < 0.001). conclusions: although all sports are effective for improving the bone health, the swimmers had much better bone status than non-athletes, while the sports of long-distance running and basketball were more efficient than others; therefore, a combination of endurance and jumping exercises seems to be the best way to prevent osteoporosis.