The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between bone mineral density (BMD) and lifestyle factors, as well as the influence of vitamin D receptor ( VDR ) gene polymorphism, in adult male workers.

The subjects were 524 male employees aged 23–49 years (37.3 ± 5.4 years, mean ± standard deviation) working at a large-scale integrated manufacturing facility in Japan. BMD was measured at the nondominant radius by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Lifestyle information was obtained by a questionnaire at the same time, and genomic DNA was isolated from peripheral leukocytes.

The genotype frequencies of VDR gene polymorphism detected by Taq I digestion were 81.3%, 17.9%, and 0.8% for TT , Tt , and tt, respectively. BMD was 0.56 ± 0.06 g/cm². Analysis of covariance with adjustment for age and body mass index (BMI) revealed that subjects who had a past history of exercise, current exercise from 3 to 7 days a week or daily alcohol intake showed significantly higher BMD than subjects without these features (0.56 ± 0.06 versus 0.54 ± 0.06, 0.58 ± 0.06 versus 0.55 ± 0.06, and 0.57 ± 0.06 versus 0.55 ± 0.06, respectively) ( P Tt or tt genotype than if they had the TT genotype (0.51 ± 0.04 versus 0.56 ± 0.06 and 0.51 ± 0.05 versus 0.57 ± 0.06, respectively) ( P Conclusions

These findings suggest that the influence of lifestyle on BMD differs according to VDR gene polymorphism in adult male workers.