Background: It has been noted that heavier women conserve bone better than those with lower
body weight. The protective effect of obesity on bone mass has been ascribed to a high body fat
content. There were many results that obesity may affect bone density in postmenopausal women,
but not in premenopausal women.
Subjects and Methods: The present study of 306 pre and peri-menopausal Korean women was undertaken to determine the effects of obesity on bone density of lumbar spine and markers of bone turnover. BMI and percent body fat of the subjects were also estimated. Subjects were classified into 2 groups, one was Obesity group and the other Normal healthy group by BMI 25 kg/m² and we compared the BMD of 2 groups by independent sample t-test.
Results: Our result revealed that obese group has greater bone mineral density at lumbar spine than non-obese group. And also, obese group was noted that have significantly higher numbers of delivery than non-obese group. Age adjusted values for BMD at lumbar spine, respectively, were positively correlated (r=0.241, p<0.001) with BMI and total body fat (r=0.253, p<0.001). Bone markers, especially total alkaline phosphatase and deoxypyridinoline were negatively correlated with BMD significantly (r=-0.128, p<0.05 vs r=-0.124, p<0.05).
Conclusion: We concluded that obesity represented by large amount of body fat have protective effect on BMD in pre and peri-menopausal Korean women.

Keywords: Obesity, BMD, Premenopause, Body fat, BMI