Aerobic Exercise and Whole-Body Vibration in Offsetting Bone Loss in Older Adults

Table 2

Snap-shot of the relevant studies* investigating the relationship of whole-body vibration and BMD of various skeletal sites.

Authors (reference)	Design/subjects	Bone measurements (BMD/BMC)	Results
Gusi et al. 2006 [19]	28 postmenopausal women were randomly assigned to either WBV (12.6 Hz, 𝑛=14) or walking group (an hour walking, 𝑛=14) for 8 months	DXA (Norland Inc., Fort Atkinson, USA)	After 8 months, femoral neck BMD in the WBV group was increased by 4.3% compared to the walking group. There were no observed change at the lumbar spine and other sites of the hip between two groups
Rubin et al. 2004 [13]	24 postmenopausal women were randomly assigned to either WBV (30 Hz, 𝑛=12) or placebo vibration devices (𝑛=12) for two 10 minutes per day for 6 months	DXA (QDR 2000) (Hologic, Waltham, MA, USA)	There was no difference between WBV and placebo group. Evaluating people with highest compliance, placebo lost 2.13% of BMD in the femoral neck but WBV group increased by 0.04%
Verschueren et al. 2004 [35]	70 were randomly assigned to WBV (35–40 Hz, 𝑛=25), resistance training group (𝑛=22), or a control group (𝑛=23) for 6 months	DXA (QDR-4500A) (Hologic, Inc., Bedford, MA)	Total hip BMD in WBV group significantly increased by 1.51% compared to control group

DXA = dual energy X-ray absorptiometry.
*Reference no. [36] is discussed in the text, but it is not presented in the table as it is a one-subject study.