Suboptimal bone status for adolescents with low motor competence and developmental coordination disorder-It's sex specific.
Expect poorer bone health in teen boys with DCD, not girls—so add weight-bearing play for boys.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Chivers et al. (2019) compared bone health in Australian teens with low motor skills or DCD to same-age peers.
They used scans to check bone thickness and muscle density in boys and girls aged 11-18.
What they found
Boys with DCD had weaker, thinner bones and less muscle density than peers.
Girls with DCD showed no bone differences, pointing to a sex-specific risk.
How this fits with other research
Bowen et al. (2012) saw the same pattern earlier: grade-school kids with DCD had delayed bone age because they moved less.
Capio et al. (2013) and Barnhill et al. (2017) also found lower bone density in boys with autism, showing the problem crosses diagnoses.
Baerg et al. (2011) adds a twist: objective trackers showed boys with DCD move less, but girls with DCD/ADHD actually move more—helping explain why only boys show bone deficits.
Why it matters
If you serve teens with DCD, screen bone health in boys and push weight-bearing sports or playground circuits.
Girls can still benefit from activity, but their bones are not showing the same danger signs—so tailor your exercise plans by sex.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Australian adolescents with low motor competence (LMC) have higher fracture rates and poorer bone health compared to European normative data, but currently no normative data exists for Australians. AIMS: To examine whether there were bone health differences in Australian adolescents with LMC or Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) when compared to typically developing age-matched Australian adolescents. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Australian adolescents aged 12-18 years with LMC/DCD (n = 39; male = 27; female = 12) and an Australian comparison sample (n = 188; boys = 101; girls = 87) undertook radial and tibial peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT) scans. Stress Strain Index (SSI (mm3)), Total Bone Area (TBA (mm2)), Muscle Density (MuD [mgcm3]), Muscle Area (MuA [cm2]), Subcutaneous Fat Area (ScFA [cm2]), Cortical Density (CoD [mgcm3]), Cortical Area (CoD [mm2]), cortical concentric ring volumetric densities, Functional Muscle Bone Unit Index (FMBU: (SSI/bone length)) and Robustness Index (SSI/bone length^3), group and sex differences were examined. OUTCOME AND RESULTS: The main finding was a significant sex-x-group interaction for Tibial FMBU (p = .021), Radial MuD (p = .036), and radial ScFA (p = .002). Boys with LMC/DCD had lower tibial FMBU scores, radial MuD and higher ScFA than the typically developing age-matched sample. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Comparisons of bone measures with Australian comparative data are similar to European findings however sex differences were found in the present study. Australian adolescent boys with LMC/DCD had less robust bones compared to their well-coordinated Australian peers, whereas there were no differences between groups for girls. These differences may be due to lower levels of habitual weight-bearing physical activity, which may be more distinct in adolescent boys with LMC/DCD compared to girls.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2019 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2018.07.010