Citation

Allison RJ, Farooq A, Hamilton B, Close GL, Wilson MG. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2014; 47(4): 782-788.

Affiliation

1Exercise and Sport Science Department, ASPETAR, Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Qatar; 2Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Science, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom; 3Athlete Health and Performance Research Centre, ASPETAR, Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Qatar; 4Department of Sports Medicine, High Performance Sport New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand; 5Department of Sports Medicine, ASPETAR, Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Qatar.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1249/MSS.0000000000000457

PMID

25058327

Abstract

PURPOSE: Adequate vitamin D (25(OH)D) is required to maintain good bone health, yet many athletes are 25(OH)D deficient. This study sought to examine the relationship between serum 25(OH)D and measures of bone health [bone mineral density (BMD) and T-score] in an ethnically diverse athletic population.

METHODS: Nine hundred and fifty male athletes presented for pre-competition medical assessment in our facility. An additional 436 individuals registered with a Qatari sporting federation (such as sailing, archery, shooting, bowling) but exercising <2 h/week were used as a control population. There were 30 Asian, 242 Black African, 235 Caucasian, 491 Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), 336 Middle Eastern and 52 Persian. All individuals undertook bone densitometry and body composition analysis by Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and serum 25(OH)D evaluation.

RESULTS: From 950 athletes, 17.5% demonstrated severe deficiency, 39.2% deficiency, 24.5% insufficiency and 18.8% sufficiency; compared to 436 controls, 25.9% severe deficiency, 46.3% deficiency, 19.0% insufficiency and 8.7% sufficiency. No athlete presented with a T-score suggestive of osteoporosis (-2.5 SD) or suggestive of osteopenia (-1.0 SD) at hip-total. After adjustment for age, anthropometry, ethnicity and athletic participation, there was no association between 25(OH)D and any BMD and T-score at any site within athletes. African and Caucasian athletes present with greater (p<0.05) BMD and T-scores at spine, neck and hip-total than those of Asian, GCC, Middle East and Persian ethnicity. Athletes participating in high impact sports present with higher measures (p<0.05) of bone health than control participants regardless of 25(OH)D status.

CONCLUSION: There is no association between 25(OH)D and BMD and T-score for any site within male athletes after adjusting for age, ethnicity and sporting participation.

Language: en