In the authors' words
“Walking as a singular exercise therapy has no significant effects on BMD at the lumbar spine, at the radius, or for the whole body in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, although significant and positive effects on femoral neck BMD in this population are evident with interventions more than 6 months in duration.”
What was measured
- Bone density Mixed results
About the study
- Type
- Meta-analysis
- Who took part
- Midlife women
- Exercise
- Walking
- Cited
- 92 times, per Europe PMC
- PubMed ID
- 24149921
How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.
Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.
Similar studies
- A meta-analysis of RCTs found that ground and joint reaction exercise of at least 24 weeks produced small but significant improvements in femoral neck and lumbar spine bone density in postmenopausal women.
- A meta-analysis of eight trials in sedentary postmenopausal women found walking programmes did not significantly change spine bone density but showed a positive effect at the femoral neck.
- A meta-analysis of 18 randomized trials found aerobics, weight-bearing and resistance exercise increased spine bone density in postmenopausal women, and walking also increased hip bone density.
- A review of 28 randomised trials in postmenopausal women aged 50 to 65 found walking combined with resistance training could preserve weight and bone density and increase muscle strength.