A study on bone mass in elderly Chinese foot-binding women

Abstract

The aim of this study is to understand the influences of the social custom of foot binding on female osteoporosis by means of comparing and analyzing the lumbar vertebrae and hip bone mass differences between the foot-binding aged women and unbound women of the same age at Qujing District of Yunnan Province. Of the examined people, 81.37% suffer from osteoporosis on the basis of lumbar vertebra (L1-L4) and femoral neck BMD, of which 82.14% for the foot-binding group and 80.44% for the unbound group. There is no statistical difference for the osteoporosis morbidity of the two groups. Compare the BMD value for various vertebrae, femoral neck, and rehabilitation of the two groups and find the BMD value for the other parts have no statistical difference except the BMD value of L1 centrum, which shows that foot binding does not significantly influence the overall bone mineral density of foot-binding women. © 2013 Yi Pan et al.