RETIRED ELITE FEMALE BALLET DANCERS AND NONATHLETIC CONTROLS HAVE SIMILAR BONE-MINERAL DENSITY AT WEIGHTBEARING SITES

Elite female ballet dancers exhibit several risk factors for osteoporo sis during their performing years, To study the long-term effect of th is lifestyle, we compared the bone mineral density (BMD) of 101 retire d elite female ballet dancers (mean age 51 years, SD = 14 years) and 1 01 normal controls, derived from a twin study, matched hierarchically for age, height, weight, and menopausal status, The dancers, who had b een retired for a mean of 25.6 years (range 1-53 years) reported a gre ater prevalence of previous menstrual disturbance, greater lifetime al cohol intake and smoking, and a lower dietary milk intake in adolescen ce than controls (all p < 0.05), However, current exercise in the danc ers was twice that of the controls (p < 0.01), The BMD of retired danc ers did nob differ from that of the controls at weightbearing sites, T he mean a SE difference in BMD (dancers minus controls) was 0.009 +/- 0.013 at the total body, -0.009 +/- 0.018 at the total hip, 0.005 +/- 0.017 at the femoral neck, 0.014 +/- 0.018 at the femoral trochanter, 0.036 +/- 0.022 at the femoral intertrochanter and -0.017 +/- 0.021 at the lumbar spine, Retired dancers had lower mean (+/- SE) BMD at the nonweightbearing sites: ultradistal radius (-0.029 +/- 0.008) (p < 0.0 1) and at the midthird radius (-0.019 +/- 0.011) (p < 0.05), There was no difference in the proportion in each of the World Health Organizat ion (WHO) categories of osteopenia (t score -1.0 to -2.5) and osteopor osis (t score < -2.5) at any of the measured sites, Regression analysi s revealed that menstrual disturbance was negatively associated with B MD at the lumbar spine and the ultradistal radial sites, but not at th e weightbearing femoral sites,This sample of retired elite ballet danc ers who had multiple historical risk factors does not appear to have e ra increased risk for future hip or vertebral fracture based on WHO st andards.