Body composition, bone mass and bone geometry in adolescent athletes

Abstract

Sports practice is a strong osteogenic stimulus promoting bone mineral accrual, and growing bones have more responsive improvements to high-impact sports. To analyze the influence of exposure to soccer and basketball practice on body composition, bone mass, and bone geometry in adolescent male athletes, accounting for maturity-associated variation on body composition. Three hundred and eighty young athletes (soccer: n = 235, age = 14.2±0.94 years, body mass = 57.1±9.7 kg, stature = 169.1±10.3 cm; basketball: n = 145, age = 14.7±0.13 years; body mass = 68.6±16.4 kg; stature = 177.1±13.8 cm). Body composition, bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) of whole body, posteroanterior lumbar spine (L1-L4), femoral neck and geometric variables, such as strength index, buckling ratio, section modulus, cross-sectional moment of inertia (CSMI) and cross-sectional area (CSA) were evaluated by Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (model iDXA, GE Healthcare Lunar, enCoreTM software version 13.60, 2011, Madison, WI, USA). Estimated peak height velocity was based on the protocol by Moore (2015). Analysis of covariance (Quade), for non-parametric ANCOVA, was used to examine the variation on body composition, bone mass, and bone geometry of players grouped by sport. There was a significant difference between the modalities only for femoral neck parameters [BMO (FAncova:11.237; p=0.001), BMC (FAncova:6.676; p=0.010)] and Bone Geometry [Strength Index (FAncova:51.407; p<0.001), Buckling ratio (FAncova:50.189; p<0.001), Section Modulus (FAncova:175.874; p<0.001), CSMI (FAncova:164.921; p<0.001) and CSA (FAncova:165.230; p<0.001)]. All parameters were higher for basketball, except for Strength Index. Our results suggest that youth basketball practice may promote a higher effect on bone parameters (BMD, BMC and geometry) related to the femur in contrast to soccer, probably due to the specificity of the modality