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Study leader Mattias Lorentzon at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden looked at the grandsons of 3,700 grandparents from a national register and found 270 of the grandsons had reduced bone density. All of these grandsons also had a grandparent who had suffered a broken a hip.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, also found the grandsons with reduced bone density who had had a male relative with a fracture had as much as 5 percent lower bone density and 4 percent smaller bones than those having healthy bone mass and no relatives with fractures. The researchers team took into account other risk factors for osteoporosis such as smoking, physical activity and calcium intake.

"Despite these other risk factors, we could see that bone size is reduced and that this leads to lower bone density, which together means low bone mass -- a risk factor for osteoporosis", Lorentzon said in a statement.

"This new risk factor may be significant for the diagnosis of low bone mass and suggests possible mechanisms for the inheritance of low bone mass and fracture risk."

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