To Bend Or Not To Break: Did The Season Make A Dent In Division I Athletes’ Bones?

Monitoring bone mineral density (BMD) in colligate athletes is beneficial to track overall bone health, due to their high impact workload. Lower BMD can increase risk of injury, affecting a player’s athletic season. However, there is limited information on how BMD changes from pre- to post-season in female Division I athletes. PURPOSE: To evaluate pre- to post-season changes in lower limb BMD in both legs of female Division I athletes. METHODS: Eighty-nine female Division I athletes were recruited from an ongoing longitudinal study tracking outcomes across the athletic season. Pre-season dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scans were conducted before participants started their athletic season, and post-season scans were completed as close as possible to the end of their season. DXA was used to assess lower limb BMD (g/cm2) in both limbs. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to assess changes in lower limb BMD over time (pre-season and post-season) and between limbs (left and right). RESULTS: Participants' demographic and BMD data for pre- and post-season assessments are summarized in Table 1. The interaction between time and limb was not significant (F1,178 = 3.24, p = 0.08), and there were no significant main effects for time (F1,178 = 1.94, p = 0.17) or limb (F1,178 = 1.09, p = 0.30) on lower limb BMD. CONCLUSION: This study found no significant changes in left or right leg BMD values from pre- to post-season in female Division I athletes. These findings indicate that lower limb BMD does not appear to fluctuate significantly across a single competitive season in this population, suggesting that bone health is preserved despite the physical demands of collegiate sports. Further research should investigate BMD changes over multiple seasons and assess any sport-specific or cumulative effects on bone health in this population. Supported by: ChatGPT was used to enhance readability and language of this abstract.