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Study: Female adolescent smokers had lower rate of bone mass accrual
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The link between depression, anxiety, smoking and lower BMD in adults has been established. In a recent study, researchers suggest that adolescent girls who smoked and experienced depressive symptoms could also experience less bone mass accrual.
Beyond exercise and nutrition, researchers said that there is not enough emphasis on identifying modifiable factors such as these that negatively impact bone health among adolescents.
“Osteoporosis is a costly health problem affecting an estimated 10 million Americans, with an additional 34 million considered at risk,” director of research in the division of adolescent medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Lorah Dorn, PhD, said in a press release. “To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study to test and demonstrate that smoking by girls, as well as symptoms of depression, have a negative impact on bone accrual during adolescence.”
Dorn and colleagues enrolled 262 healthy girls aged 11 to 19 years (mean age 14.4 years) into age categories of 11, 13, 15 and 17 years and smoking groups (i.e. 1=never; 5=≥100 lifetime cigarettes; and smoking >20 of the last 30 days). The patients attended three annual visits, followed by phone interviews every 3 months between the visits.
Measurements of the total body bone mineral content (TB BMC) and BMD of the total hip and lumbar spine were taken annually by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), researchers wrote.
According to data, as smoking continued the rate for bone accrual decreased as the patients aged. The researchers also discovered that patients with higher depressive symptoms were linked with lower lumbar spine BMD in all age groups.
“These novel longitudinal findings support our hypotheses regarding both smoking and depressive symptoms as negatively influencing bone accrual in adolescent girls,” the researchers wrote.
Disclosure:The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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