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Researchers studied more than 4,000 black, white and Mexican-American males who were participating in the federally funded National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. More than 900 men reported jogging at least once a month, while 3,300 men said they did not jog.

Overall, it is found that the joggers tended to weigh less, have fewer chronic health problems, to be nonsmokers, and enjoy better overall health than their non-jogging peers.

In addition, average bone mineral density in the thigh was 5% higher in joggers than in non-joggers. And overall bone density was almost 8% higher among joggers, compared with men who shunned exercise altogether.

The findings also suggest that intensive, daily jogging is not required to receive bone benefits. Even men who jogged just once a month had higher bone mineral density than non-joggers, according to the report. Those who jogged nine or more times a month, however, showed the highest bone density.

The benefits of jogging do appear to hit a plateau, the report indicates. Men who reported jogging more than 20 times a month had bone density similar to that of less frequent joggers.

In other findings, joggers also reported more leisure-time and weight-bearing activities. Still, bone mineral density remained higher among joggers after the authors took these factors into consideration, noted The American Journal of Public Health (2001;91:1056-1059).