Childhood obesity as a risk factor for bone fracture: a mechanistic study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To investigate the risk of bone fracture sustained by obese children exposed to falls. The bone fracture risk of obese children would be greater than that of their nonobese counterparts was hypothesized.

Design and methods

Finite element-based computational models for children that reflected various levels of obesity by varying body mass and the thickness of the subcutaneous adipose tissue layer was developed. The models took account of both the momentum effect of variation of body mass and the cushion effect of variation of soft tissue thickness and examined these two contradictory effects on pelvic bone fracture risk through a set of sideways fall simulations with a range of impact speeds.

Results

The critical impact speed that yielded pelvic bone fracture

SUBMITTER: Kim JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3740028 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature