Femalle Athlletes Bone Miinerall Densiity Measurement

We took up as the purpose of this study the measurement of the BMD (bone mineral density) of the neck of femur and radius in female athletes participating in weight bearing (WB) as well as non weight bearing activities in Iran and the world. Non athlete females were also included in the measurement. To initiate the study, 23 female athletes (age 20 to 25) were selected. They were all from the Iranian national teams engaged in swimming, tennis, table tennis, and gymnastics, and had sport activity at least for 10 years, 3 days a week. Subjects were free of problems, which would affect their bone mineral density. BMD measurement was conducted in two areas of the body (necks of femur and radius), then statistical analysis was performed on data using (x=0.05). Results indicated that in the neck of femur, values of BMD for female athletes were higher than standard values of BMD for non-athlete females. Compared with standard values of BMD in Iran, the difference was significant for gymnasts, the tennis players and the swimmers, but not for the table tennis players. Comparison with world standard values showed the difference to be significant for gymnasts and the tennis players, but not for the swimmers and the table tennis players. In radius, the values of BMD for the female athlete was lower than standard values for non athletes but the differences were not significant for the two groups of table tennis players and gymnasts. Comparing the four groups of athletes there were differences in values of BMD in the two areas, but the difference was meaningful only for the gymnasts. BMD for swimmers (NWB) was lower than other groups of athletes (WB) in this study but the difference was not significant.