Bone mineral density in femora of documented age at death from Schoten (Belgium, 19th-20th century).

The proportion of older age groups in Western human populations is growing. It is therefore of utmost importance to understand the factors associated with diseases and disabilities due to aging but also to know how these factors are changing in these industrialized populations whose lifestyle and conditions are changing. Among these factors, osteoporosis, often considered absent or rare in pre-industrial populations, is associated with sedentary lifestyle in modern populations. The relationship between decreased bone mass, age, and increased risk of femoral neck fracture is well documented. In this study, we attempted to identify possible secular trends in bone mineral content related to aging in a series of 51 adult skeletons of known age and sex (27 males and 24 females born between 1837 and 1916). All individuals constituting this series were buried in 1930 and 1931 in the old cemetery of Schoten, in the suburbs of Antwerp, Belgium, and were exhumed in 1946. Our results indicate a degradation of bone mineral density during aging that is comparable to that of current Western reference populations. Females appear to have bone health above the current average until the age of 50 years. These results illustrate the variability of bone mineral density between different populations and within human populations over time.

Schoten population; bone mineral density (BMD); DXA system; aging; osteoporosis.