Bone Mineral Density in Female Athletes and Female Students

Objective: The purpose of this study is to compare bone mineral density (BMD) levels in traditional female college students with NCAA Division II female athletes utilizing dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Methods: We performed DXA scans on 32 female college students and 33 female college athletes to analyze their BMD data. This data was analyzed through independent-t tests. Results: A significant difference was found in Height (t(63) = -3.490, p = .001, and Age (t(63) = 6.715, p = .000. No significant difference was found in Mass (t(63) = -1.123, p = .226. There was a significant difference found in body composition: Body Fat Percent (t(63) = 2.752, p = .008, Lean Body Mass (t(63) = -4.049, p = .000, and Fat Free Mass (t(63) = -4.126, p = .000. We found that BMD was greater in athletes, due to their exercise schedule and weight bearing activities. Conclusion: Our study found that there was no significant difference in Total Body BMD between athletes and nonathletes. However, each region had a significant difference except for the head. Since the head makes up the largest portion of BMD compared to the other regions of the body it distorted the Total Body BMD values, causing there to be no significant difference between the two groups. Due to this distortion, our research group decided to restructure the data to exclude the head, resulting in the Total Body BMD to have a significant difference between female athletes and non-athletes