Bone Mass and osteoporosis risk determination in a group of students aged 20 to 30 years old attending a University Campus

There is scarce information regarding bone mass accretion and its determinants in the skeleton of people aged 20 to 30 years. In order to define risk factors that may interfere with PBM acquisition, we did apply simultaneously a validated questionnaire and measured bone mass in the non dominant Os Calcis with a LUNAR DXA (PIXI) in a convenience sample of 347 students (75.5 % women) attending the Universidad Ibero Americana, Mexico City. According to the number of risk factors present 51% had less than 2 risk factors, the low risk group. 45.8% reported less than 4 risk factors (moderate risk group) only 3.1 % of this sample reported more than 5 risk factors, representing a high risk group. Normal BMD (between minus 0.99 and over 0.99 standard deviations), low (between minus 1.0 and minus 1.8s.d.) and very low (values below minus 1.8s.d.). Mean age was 21.6 years (range 20 to 30), 75.5% had normal BMI, 15.6% is overweight, and 6.1% has low body weight. We found a significant correlation between BMD and female sex (ƒÓ2 = 11.82; p< 0.02) BMI (<18.5) and fracture risk factors (ƒÓ2 = 31.15; p< 0.002). We conclude that this screening strategy is useful to define the risk profiles present in a convenience sample of students normally attending to their school activities at the University Campus, enabling us to design intervention strategies to improve PBM as a prevention strategy for future Osteoporosis.