Low trabecular bone density in recent sedentary modern humans

Authors

Habiba H. Chirchir, Marshall UniversityFollow
Christopher B. Ruff
Juho-Antti Junno
Richard Potts

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2017

Abstract

Research on a limited number of samples suggests that trabecular bone density (i.e., bone volume fraction, BVF) within specific articulations is lower among more sedentary Holocene agricultural populations compared with Holocene foragers, implying that activity levels have a significant effect on trabecular BVF. However, it is unclear to what extent BVF differs among groups with varying activity levels and how general this phenomenon is across multiple limb articulations. Here, we test two hypotheses that: (i) sedentary populations have lower BVF compared with active populations across limb articulations; and (ii) these declines are more uniform in the lower limb (because of its more direct relationship to mobility), and more variable in the upper limb.

Comments

Copyright © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. All rights reserved.

Recommended Citation

Chirchir H, Ruff CB, Junno, J, Potts R/ (2017) Low trabecular bone density in recent sedentary modern humans. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 122(3):550-560.