Like Mother, Like Daughter? Dietary and Non-Dietary Bone Fracture Risk Factors in Mothers and Their Daughters

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to demonstrate similarities and differences between mothers and daughters regarding dietary and non-dietary risk factors for bone fractures and osteoporosis.

Methods: The study was carried out in 2007-2010 on 712 mothers (29-59 years) and daughters (12-21 years) family pairs. In the sub-sample (170 family pairs) bone mineral density (BMD) was measured for the forearm by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The consumption of dairy products was determined with a semi-quantitative food fre-quency questionnaire (ADOS-Ca) and calcium intake from the daily diet was calculated.

Results: The presence of risk factors for bone fractures in mothers and daughters was significantly correlated. The Spearman rank coefficient for dietary factors of fracture risk was 0.87 (P<0.05) in whole sub-sample, 0.94 (P<0.05) in bottom tercile of BMD, 0.82 (P<0.05) in middle tercile of BMD, 0.54 (P>0.05) in upper tercile of BMD and for non-dietary factors of fracture risk was 0.83 (P<0.05) in whole sub-sample, 0.86 (P<0.05) in bottom tercile of BMD, 0.93 (P<0.05) in middle tercile of BMD, 0.65 (P<0.05) in upper tercile of BMD.

Conclusions: Our results confirm the role of the family environment for bone health and document the stronger ef-fect of negative factors of the family environment as compared to other positive factors on bone fracture risk.