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Fetal and infant bone growth predicts future bone strength and size, study shows

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Hip bone size, shape, strength and mineralization can be predicted by bone growth characteristics in the first years of life, a finding that may prove useful to clinicians reduce the risk of osteoporosis later in life, according to a study by U.K. researchers that they presented at the recent European Congress on Osteoporosis & Osteoarthritis in Bordeaux, France.

The team found fetal and infant bone growth at all time intervals was positively correlated with bone mineral content, femoral neck cross sectional area, bending strength and total hip bone size. In late pregnancy up until the first 2 years of life, researchers found femoral neck cross sectional area and bone bending strength were strongly correlated with growth velocity, according to the abstract.

Gender was not a factor in bone growth, as researchers found similar results in boys and girls when they were analyzed separately.

“This study suggests that how well you grow in the womb and the first few years of life might influence the strength of your hip and therefore how likely you are to be at risk of an osteoporotic hip fracture in older age,” lead author Nicholas Harvey, MA, MB, BChir, MRCP, PhD, senior lecturer at the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, stated in an International Osteoporosis Foundation press release.

Harvey and colleagues measured the gestation period of 493 babies from 11 weeks to 34 weeks of mothers from the Southampton Women’s Survey and then measured the length of the babies at birth and every 6 months thereafter for the first 48 months of age. They then measured the density, shape and hip size of the children at 6 years via bone density scanning and hip structure analysis software, according to the abstract.

Reference:

• Harvey NC, Cole ZA, Crozier SR, et al. Childhood hip strength is predicted by growth in utero: the Southampton Women's Survey. Osteoporos Int. 2012;23(Supplement 2). Abstract 0C17.

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