ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1591242
This article is part of the Research TopicStrategies for Workplace Design to Reduce Obesity and Metabolic RisksView all articles
BONE MINERAL CONTENT WITH ENERGY X-RAY ABSORPTIOMETRY-DETERMINED IS ASSOCIATED WITH HANDGRIP STRENGTH IN LATINAMERICAN DIVERS WORKERS
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Los Lagos, Osorno, Los Lagos, Chile
- 2Andres Bello University, Santiago, Chile
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Although a lack of gravitational stimuli decreases bone mineral content in some populations such as astronauts (BMC), little is known about the association of BMC and with handgrip muscle strength (HGS) in diver's workers of different years of diving experience. Objectives: To describe the BMC and body composition of dive workers of different years of diving experience. A second objective was to associate the level of BMC with HGS. Material and methods: A descriptive and longitudinal pilot study was carried out in adult men divers of different years of diving experience; tertile 1 of diving experience 1-20 years (T1DE, n = 27), tertile 2 of diving experience 21-35 years (T2DE, n = 11), and tertile 3 of diving experience 36-45 years (T1DE, n = 17). Primary variables were BMC, total fat-free mass (FFM) and total body fat mass (BF) analyzed by dual X-ray absorptiometry (iDEXA) equipment and the average of both arms handgrip strength (HGSav). Secondary variables were lifestyle patterns, anthropometry and other socio-demographic variables.Results: T3DE showed significant differences vs. T1DE group in BMCLegs (diff. ˗107.9 g, P=0.029), BMCRL (diff. ˗51.4 g, P=0.039) and BMCLL (diff. ˗55.7 g, P=0.037). T3DE showed significant differences vs. T1DE group in outcomes total FFM (diff. ˗5011.9 g, P=0.015), FFMArms (diff. ˗1275.1 g, P=0.009), FFMRA (diff. ˗472.3 g, P=0.012), FFMLA (diff. ˗406.6 g, P=0.028, d 0.12), FFMLegs (diff. ˗2117.8 g, P=0.031), FFMRL (diff. ˗1046.3 g, P=0.037, d 0.11) and FFMLL (diff. ˗1071.3 g, P=0.031). There was a significant correlation between HGSav and total BMC (R²=21.3%), between HGSRA and total BMC (R²=21.1%), between HGSLA and total BMC (R²=20.2%), between HGSav and BMCArms (R²=28.8%), between HGSRA and BMCArms (R²=27.9%), between HGSLA and BMCArms (R²=27.8%), between HGSav and BMCLegs (R²=13.3%), between HGSRA and BMCLegs (R²=13.8%), and between HGSLA and BMCLegs (R²=11.9%). Diving workers with more years of experience have lower BMC level and FFM in the legs compared to peers with less experience, and HGS is associated with BMC. Future longitudinal studies in diver workers could explore BMC and body composition in these populations to confirm our findings and include other physical fitness parameters in different diving specialties.
Keywords: bone mineral density, Blood Pressure, Cardiometabolic risk, Diver, Body Composition, Fat-free mass, Handgrip, Dual X Ray Absorptiometry Italiano (Italia)
Received: 10 Mar 2025; Accepted: 18 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Véliz Burgos, Pereira Berrios, Dörner Paris and Alvarez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Cristian Alvarez, Andres Bello University, Santiago, Chile
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.