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Stress Fractures in Female Army Recruits: Implications of Bone Density, Calcium Intake, and Exercise

Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins

Address reprint requests to: Alana D. Cline, PhD, RD, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, 6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70808-4124

Objective: To identify characteristics and factors associated with increased risk for stress fractures in military women.

Design: Case-control study to retrospectively examine physical activity, prior calcium intake, and bone density as predictors of stress fractures.

Setting: A military training installation which incorporates physical training for women.

Subjects: Forty-nine female soldiers with confirmed stress fractures (cases) and 78 female soldiers with no orthopedic injuries (controls), aged 18 to 33 years.

Measures: Retrospective self-reports of habitual exercise, sports participation, and food intake; current height, weight, and body mass index (BMI); demographic variables (age, ethnicity, menstrual patterns, smoking habits); and bone density on radiologically defined stress fractures.

Results: Cases and controls were similar in height, weight, and BMI. Measurements of bone density (g/cm²) at the trochanter (cases, 0.77±0.09; controls, 0.77±0.08); femoral neck (cases, 0.94±0.10; controls, 0.94±0.09); Ward’s triangle (cases, 0.91±0.11; controls, 0.93±0.11); lumbar spine (cases, 1.21±0.12; controls, 1.24±0.10); and radius shaft (cases, 0.67±0.09; controls, 0.68±0.05) were not different between groups. Calcium intake was not different between groups (cases, 1154±751 mg/day; controls, 944±513 mg/day) and did not correlate with bone density (r=0.01 to -0.06 at four sites). Sports participation positively correlated with bone density in the hip (r=0.49). Leisure activity energy expenditure (kcal/day) tended toward association with lower stress fracture risk as expenditure level increased (p=0.06).

Conclusion: Stress fracture in female Army recruits was not correlated with bone density or calcium intake during adolescence, although a weak relationship to prior physical activity was observed.

Key words: stress fracture, bone density, physical activity, calcium, exercise

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