Physical activity and calcium modalities for bone mineral increase in aged women.

This study tested the hypothesis that physical activity and/or supplemental calcium (0.75 g/day) and vitamin D (400 IU) would effectively slow bone loss, and /or increase bone mineral content (BMC) in aged females (X = 81) over three years. In vivo BMC and width of the radius was determined by photon absorptiometry at two sites. Four groups were formed: a control, a drug, a physical activity, and a physical activity plus drug. A single tailed t-test was used to compared the slope of the linear regression of 10 data points collected on each subject. The BMC of the control group declined 3.29%, while the physical activity group and drug group demonstrated a 2.29% (p less than .05) increase and a 1.58% (p less than .07) increase respectively, during the study.