Téma: Original papers

Osteoporosis in children and adolescents: cause, diagnosis and prevention

Petra Čamborová1, Ľudmila Košťálová2

Osteoporosis is the most common metabolic bone disease in adulthood. In recent years, there is growing attention to identify children and adolescents with osteoporosis, because osteoporosis is often clinically invisible long before the appearence of its first symptoms. The impact of the bone mass loss on the quality of life of an aging population as well as on ensuring their health care, turns attention in the last 20-30 years to provide the sufficient bone mass during the period of childhood and adolescence, particularly focusing on diet and sufficiency of physical activities. Nearly the half of adult bone mass is attained 3-4 years following the onset of puberty, which makes this period of life the most critical one in the bone development. Peak bone mass attained during the third decade of life becomes a strong predictor of postmenopausal osteoporosis. As a result of the mentioned, optimizing peak bone mass gain in the period of adolescence presumes the formation of bones well prepared for the later necessary losses during the period of aging. The two easiest ways, which bring an effect on the optimal bone mass gain, are diet and regular physical activity.