Correlation between hand and total body bone density in normal Chinese children

Hand bone mineral density (BMD) in adults was found to be significantly correlated with various skeletal sites, including the total body. However, the relationships between hand and total body bone measurements have yet to be explored for children. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 892 normal Chinese children (511 males, 381 females) aged 5–14 years by measuring the BMD and bone mineral content (BMC) at the total hand, upper limb, subtotal body, and total body using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). We found that hand BMD and BMC increased with age for both genders. Female children had significantly higher hand BMD and BMC than males. Age explained more variance in hand BMD for females (R2 = 0.727) than for males (R2 = 0.596). For both genders, hand BMD and BMC correlated highly with age, weight, height, total body lean mass, and BMD and BMC at the upper limb, subtotal body, and total body (r = 0.730–0.965, p < 0.001) and moderately with body mass index and total body fat mass (r = 0.525–0.701, p < 0.001). Therefore, the hand DXA scan can potentially be a new tool for the clinical assessment of bone health in children.