Over 54 million adults in the U.S. are diagnosed with low bone mineral density (BMD). This increases their chance of fractures, especially at the hip or wrist. Because bone adaptation is thought to be driven by strain-producing physical activities, surveys have been made to relate physical activity history to BMD. Current surveys focus on the lower body, but this study examines how physical activity in the upper extremities relates to upper body BMD. Subject testing of 5 basic upper body motions were used to calculate bone loading weighting factors in 34 activities. These weighting factors were used to develop a novel Bone Loading in the Upper Extremities (BLUE) score, but this score was not found to be a significant predictor of BMD (r=0.32, p=0.21).

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Farvardin, Amirhossein
• Reed, Charity Lynn
• Ardini, Maximilian Alexander

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-043014-201022

Advisor

• Troy, Karen

Year

• 2014

Date created

• 2014-04-30

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Biomedical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright