Musculoskeletal Health Promotion In Postmenopausal Women: A Feasibility Study Of Training In A Local Community

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and the osteogenic effect of a musculoskeletal health promotion initiative for postmenopausal women carried out in a local community. METHODS: 28 postmenopausal women (53-68 years) were assigned to 19-week supervised training offered twice weekly (MMT, n = 15) or to a control group (CON, n = 13). The training was multimodal and consisted of high- and odd-impact, resistance, and balance-coordination training. The primary outcomes were attendance rate; regional and total bone mineral density (BMD), bone mineral content (BMC) and body composition assessed by iDXA; bone turnover evaluated by the bone turnover markers P1NP, OC and CTX assessed by the Chemiluminescence method (iSYS, Immunodiagnostic Systems Ltd., Bolton, England). RESULTS: 22 (79%) participants completed the study, and mean attendance rate for MMT was 65.5% of the two weekly sessions offered. Right trochanter BMD increased (p < 0.05) by 1.0 ± 1.1% in MMT, which was higher (p < 0.05) than in CON. While whole-body BMC was unchanged in MMT after 19 weeks of training, it decreased (p < 0.05) by 0.7% in CON resulting in a significant difference (p < 0.05) in delta values between the groups. Compared to baseline, body fat percentage (%BF), fat mass (FM), and visceral adipose tissue (VAT)-mass and -volume were decreased (p < 0.01) in MMT after 19 weeks, and the delta values differed significantly between the groups (p < 0.05). Neither in MMT or in CON, were significant changes in BTM, muscle strength and -power or dynamic balance observed. CONCLUSIONS: A mean attendance rate of 65.5% for MMT over nineteen weeks shows that supervised multimodal training offered twice weekly in a local community is a feasible type of training for postmenopausal women. The training had a marked positive effect on body composition, indicating a cardiovascular health-enhancing effect, while the musculoskeletal health impact was modest, showing a between-group difference in whole-body BMC and in right trochanter BMD. The reason for this may be too low training volume, frequency and musculoskeletal intensity, which indicate that a better training control is needed when osteogenic training is applied in a real-life setting.