Memory difficulty and bone mineral density: The NHANES, 2013-2018.

INTRODUCTION

Whether memory difficulty is associated with bone mineral density (BMD) is still unclear. We examined the association between memory difficulty and BMD in US adults.

METHODOLOGY: This cross-sectional study identified 4383 individuals (2581 [58.9%] males). Memory difficulty data were collected during a face-to-face interview. Femoral neck, total hip, and lumbar spine BMD were measured by a Hologic QDR-4500A fan-beam dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA); BMD T-scores were calculated using the established method.

RESULTS

The average age and body mass index for study participants were 39.5 years (SD = 13.4 years) and 28.6 kg/m2 (SD = 6.6 kg/m2), respectively. In both unadjusted and adjusted models, memory difficulty was associated with decreased femoral neck and total hip BMD T-scores (all P < 0.05), but not with lumbar spine BMD T-scores. These associations were identical for males and females (all P interaction by sex >0.100). The negative association between memory difficulty and hip BMD appeared to be stronger in individuals <50 years old than in those ≥50 years old (P interaction <0.001).

CONCLUSION

Memory difficulty was negatively associated with hip BMD, with stronger associations observed among individuals aged <50 years old.