Bone mineral density in gravida: Effect of pregnancies and breast-feeding in women of differing ages and parity

Ehud Lebel, Yuri Mishukov, Liana Babchenko, Arnon Samueloff, Ari Zimran, Deborah Elstein*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Changes of bone during pregnancy and during lactation evaluated by bone mineral density (BMD) may have implications for risk of osteoporosis and fractures. We studied BMD in women of differing ages, parity, and lactation histories immediately postpartum for BMD, T -scores, and Z -scores. Institutional Review Board approval was received. All women while still in hospital postpartum were asked to participate. BMD was performed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) machine at femoral neck (FN) and lumbar spine (LS) by a single technician. Of 132 participants, 73 (55.3%) were ≤30 years; 27 (20.5%) were primiparous; 36 (27.3%) were grand multiparous; 35 (26.5%) never breast fed. Mean FN T -scores and Z -scores were higher than respective mean LS scores, but all means were within the normal limits. Mean LS T -scores and Z -scores were highest in the grand multiparas. There were only 2 (1.5%) outliers with low Z -scores. We conclude that, in a large cohort of Israeli women with BMD parameters assessed by DXA within two days postpartum, mean T -scores and Z -scores at both the LS and FN were within normal limits regardless of age (20-46 years), parity (1-13 viable births), and history of either no or prolonged months of lactation (up to 11.25 years).

Original languageEnglish
Article number897182
JournalJournal of Osteoporosis
Volume2014
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Ehud Lebel et al.

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