Objective: To assess the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and physical performance in postmenopausal women.Methods: Forty postmenopausal women (age range 48 – 69; mean 57.6±6.1 years) with a duration of menopause of 1.0-31.0; mean 10.0±7.2 years were included. Twelve women (30.0%) had diabetes and 23 (57.5%) had hypertension. BMD of the distal radius, lumbar spine and femoral neck was assessed by dual energy Xray absorptiometry. Physical performance measures included normal and brisk eight meter gait speed, normal step length (NSL), brisk step length (BSL), timed one-leg stance (OLS), five repetitions timed sit-to-stand (STS) and grip strength.Results: Mean BMD of the lumbar spine was 1.04 ±0.17,at the femoral neck0.93 ± 0.11 and at the distal forearm 0.76± 0.10 g/cm2. Surprisingly, BMD of the lumbar spine was positively correlated with STS[r=0.367, p= 0.020] and negatively correlated with normal gait speed [r=-0.578, p=0.0001], brisk gait speed [r=-0.554, p=0.0001] and BSL [r=-0.416, p=0.008]. There were no significant correlations between BMD of the femoral neck or distal forearm and any of the physical performance measures. Diabetic patients had lower grip strength, shorter NSL, shorter BSL, yet higher femoral BMD than non-diabetics (p=0.03, 0.0001, 0.016, 0.011, respectively) while hypertensive subjects had higher BMD of the femoral neck and distal radius (p= 0.029 and 0.043, respectively). In multivariate regression models, diabetes and hypertension were independently correlated with BMD of the femoral neck [B=0.139, p=0.003; B=0.089, p=0.041, respectively].Conclusions:There was no relation between higher BMD and better physical performance.