Toddlers who walk early likely to have stronger bones says study

A new study reveals that children who start walking at the age of 18 months are likely to develop stronger bones and are physically more active as they get older. The study links bone strength with good early life movement. Researchers demonstrated an association between children's abilities in common movements like jumping, running and walking at 18 months and stronger bones as an adolescent.

Researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and the University of Bristol in UK said that it is thought that these movements in toddlers place a stress on the bones, causing them to react by becoming wider and thicker, thereby making them stronger than those in children who may not be moving as much.

For this study researchers analysed data from 2,327 participants from children of the 90s, a lifelong study of health and wellbeing that has been charting the lives of 14,500 people since they were born in the early 1990s.

Also the movement at 18 months was assessed and hip and shin bone size, shape and mineral density was measured at 17 years of age, for both males and females, by scanning with X-ray absorptiometry and peripheral computed tomography.

It was found that effect was more pronounced in males than in females, suggesting early movement plays less of a role in female bone strength, researchers said. These findings were published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.