The purpose of this study was to retrospectively describe the childhood sports activity level of Korean adult men and women and to determine whether a higher level of childhood sports activity was positively associated with adult bone mineral density.

A cross-sectional study of 100 Korean men (n=40) and women (n=60) was completed. Participants completed a detailed lifetime sports activity questionnaire and had their bone mineral density of the femur and lumbar spine measured using dual energy x-ray densitometry (DEXA). All sports activities were classified into four categories of peak strain score on the basis of ground reaction forces (GRF).

During the age of high school, women and men who participated in a high intensity sports activity demonstrated higher bone density in the femur site after adjustment for the effects of body weight, fat body mass, lean body mass, the level of calcium intake, and breast feeding period than those who did not participate in sports activity at all.

These results highlight the need to participate in high intensity sports activity during high school age as a means of increasing peak bone mass in the femur site.