Southampton doctors lead major research project into osteoporosis
Doctors in Southampton are hoping to establish that childhood experiences play a major part in the development of brittle bones, or osteoporosis, in later life.
Dr Elaine Dennison, a research fellow at the University of Southampton's MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit, has been awarded a major grant of £85,500 by medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign, to lead the three-year project.
Osteoporosis, which makes bones become thin and fragile, and more likely to break, affects millions of older people in the UK, particularly women after the menopause. It often leads to fractures of the hip, spine and wrist.
Factors which are already known to increase the risk of osteoporosis include poor diet, lack of exercise, long-term steroid use, and family history.
Dr Dennison will examine the interaction between growth in the womb and the first year of life, with someone's genetic makeup and the lifestyle they adopt as an adult, to see how they interact to cause osteoporosis.
She will study a group of 5,000 men and women born between 1931 and 1939 from Hertfordshire, whose medical records dating back to their childhood have survived.
"We're looking at the relationship between how people grow in their early years, and the risk of an osteoporotic fracture," explained Dr Dennison. "This requires large studies, so we are interviewing 5,000 people, and then inviting 500 men and 500 women to have bone density scans.
"Although we know that a number of factors, including someone's genetic makeup, their growth in early life and the lifestyle they adopt as an adult are all important in determining the risk of the disease, we do not know yet if these risk factors may interact to make some people particularly vulnerable to osteoporosis."
It is thought that ultimately the result of the research could lead to individuals most at risk of developing osteoporosis being targeted for bone density scans. Perhaps by modifying the lifestyle, weight and diet of young women, this would improve bone growth and reduce the risk of fractures in their offspring.
