都會區老人的日常活動量、骨生化代謝指標及跟骨定量式超音波檢查之相關性研究

Physical activity or exercise has been proved to be beneficial for health. The relationship between physical activities and health is becoming an important issue to be investigated among the elderly. Osteoporosis is a major health concern when the number of older people increases rapidly in Taiwan. Exercise has the osteogenic effect to maintain bone density or decrease the rate of bone loss. Regular exercise may prevent osteoporotic fractures by preventing both osteoporosis and falls. However, these benefits have not yet been proved in the elderly. The purpose of this study is to study the relationship among the amount of physical activities, biochemical markers of bone, and calcaneal quantitative ultrasound (QUS) in elderly people. Study subjects were 512 elder people with age 70 or over recruited from a cohort of 1002 elderly persons who lived in Chung-Cheng District of Taipei City and received comprehensive medical exam in National Taiwan University Hospital in 1996. All study subjects were evaluated with “Modified Baecke Questionnaire (Chinese Version)”, serum and urine biochemical markers of bone, and calcaneal QUS. Our results revealed female had higher bone turnover rate and lower bone area ratio then male. Physically active
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male had lower level of biochemical markers of bone resorption than sedentary male. On the contrary, no association of the amount of physical activity and biochemical markers of bone was observed in the elder female. The results of this study provide vital evidence to recommend the elder male to increase the amount of daily physical activities or participate in exercise regularly, which may prevent osteoporosis. Further studies is required to clarify the role of exercise in prevention of osteoporosis in elder female.