The effect of depression on bone mineral density in college-aged females

Research regarding the relationship between depression and bone mineral density (BMD) has produced very inconsistent and limited results, especially in younger females. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between depression scores and BMD in college-aged female students. Forty-six participants, ages 18-24 (+/-1.0368) completed a 24-hour dietary recall, medical history, Beck’s Depression Inventory and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS) and had their femur and sacral vertebrae BMD, z-score, and t-score measured in the Dual X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA) machine. Participant demographics were analyzed with descriptive statistics and potential variable correlations were analyzed by partial and bipartial correlation tests. Findings indicated no significant relationship between depression and BMD, but there was a significant positive correlation between the number of days of cardiovascular activity per week and femur BMD (p=0.027) and t-score (p=0.036). Future research should continue to analyze the potential relationship between depression and BMD in this age group with a larger sample size and random sampling.