Bone Mineral Content in Canadian Eskimos

Document Type

Article

Authors

Richard B. Mazess, University of Wisconsin Hospital, Madison, Wisconsin
Warren E. Mather, University of Wisconsin Hospital, Madison, Wisconsin

Abstract

Bone mineral content was measured using direct photon absorptiometry in the forearm bones of Canadian Eskimos in the northern Foxe Basin. The sample consisted of 177 children, 92 young adults and 66 older adults. Cana­dian Eskimo children had slightly lower bone mineral (4 to 5% ) than Alaskan Eskimo children, and much lower bone mineral ( 10 to 13% than U.S. Whites), but these group differences were commensurate with the lower weights of the Canadian children. Throughout adulthood Canadian Eskimo bone mineral was almost identical on the average with values for Alaskan Eskimos; the major differences were lower mineral-width ratios in the Canadian Eskimo males over 50 years of age. Thus the Canadian Eskimo- White differences paralleled the relative deficit demonstrated for Alaskan Eskimos in a previous study, with the exception that relative bone loss in elderly males seemed even greater in the Canadian than in the Alaskan group. Eskimo males had a bone loss of about 10% a decade, and Eskimo females about 15% a decade, beginning in the forties; this was about 5% per decade for both sexes greater than the aging bone loss seen in U.S. Whites, and the onset of the bone loss was a decade sooner in Eskimo males.

Recommended Citation

Mazess, Richard B. and Mather, Warren E. (1975) "Bone Mineral Content in Canadian Eskimos," Human Biology: Vol. 47: Iss. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol47/iss1/6