TY - JOUR
T1 - Impaired Vestibular Function and Low Bone Mineral Density
T2 - Data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging
AU - Bigelow, Robin T.
AU - Semenov, Yevgeniy R.
AU - Anson, Eric
AU - du Lac, Sascha
AU - Ferrucci, Luigi
AU - Agrawal, Yuri
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health grant NIH/NIDCD K23 DC013056 and 5T32 DC000023-30. The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging is supported by the National Institute on Aging.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Association for Research in Otolaryngology.
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - Animal studies have demonstrated that experimentally induced vestibular ablation leads to a decrease in bone mineral density, through mechanisms mediated by the sympathetic nervous system. Loss of bone mineral density is a common and potentially morbid condition that occurs with aging, and we sought to investigate whether vestibular loss is associated with low bone mineral density in older adults. We evaluated this question in a cross-sectional analysis of data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), a large, prospective cohort study managed by the National Institute on Aging (N = 389). Vestibular function was assessed with cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs), a measure of saccular function. Bone mineral density was assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). In two-way t test analysis, we observed that individuals with reduced vestibular physiologic function had significantly lower bone mineral density. In adjusted multivariate linear regression analyses, we observed that older individuals with reduced vestibular physiologic function had significantly lower bone mineral density, specifically in weight-bearing hip and lower extremity bones. These results suggest that the vestibular system may contribute to bone homeostasis in older adults, notably of the weight-bearing hip bones at greatest risk of osteoporotic fracture. Further longitudinal analysis of vestibular function and bone mineral density in humans is needed to characterize this relationship and investigate the potential confounding effect of physical activity.
AB - Animal studies have demonstrated that experimentally induced vestibular ablation leads to a decrease in bone mineral density, through mechanisms mediated by the sympathetic nervous system. Loss of bone mineral density is a common and potentially morbid condition that occurs with aging, and we sought to investigate whether vestibular loss is associated with low bone mineral density in older adults. We evaluated this question in a cross-sectional analysis of data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), a large, prospective cohort study managed by the National Institute on Aging (N = 389). Vestibular function was assessed with cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs), a measure of saccular function. Bone mineral density was assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). In two-way t test analysis, we observed that individuals with reduced vestibular physiologic function had significantly lower bone mineral density. In adjusted multivariate linear regression analyses, we observed that older individuals with reduced vestibular physiologic function had significantly lower bone mineral density, specifically in weight-bearing hip and lower extremity bones. These results suggest that the vestibular system may contribute to bone homeostasis in older adults, notably of the weight-bearing hip bones at greatest risk of osteoporotic fracture. Further longitudinal analysis of vestibular function and bone mineral density in humans is needed to characterize this relationship and investigate the potential confounding effect of physical activity.
KW - aging
KW - bone mineral density
KW - osteoporosis
KW - vestibular
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U2 - 10.1007/s10162-016-0577-5
DO - 10.1007/s10162-016-0577-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 27447468
AN - SCOPUS:84979201246
SN - 1525-3961
VL - 17
SP - 433
EP - 440
JO - JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology
JF - JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology
IS - 5
ER -