Mid-adulthood cardiometabolic risk factor profiles of sarcopenic obesity

Midlife and contemporaneous cardiometabolic risk factors associated with sarcopenic obesity were examined.

Utilizing BMI and sex-specific 24-h urinary creatinine excretion, 1,019 participants from the Framingham cohorts were categorized as non-sarcopenia non-obese (NSNO), non-obese sarcopenia, non-sarcopenic obesity, and sarcopenic obesity. Cardiometabolic risk factors were quantified by standard laboratory assessment cross-sectionally and 10, 20, and 30 years before sarcopenic obesity assessment.

NSNO, sarcopenia, obesity, and sarcopenic obesity accounted for 30.0%, 39.6%, 20.0%, and 10.4% of study participants, respectively. Cross-sectionally, participants with sarcopenic obesity had a higher proportion of hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes than those with NSNO or sarcopenia (all P < 0.03). Similar patterns were observed retrospectively at 10, 20, and 30 years. Compared with NSNO or sarcopenia, sarcopenic obesity was associated with a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes at 10 years and hypertension and metabolic syndrome at all three time points before baseline (all P < 0.03). Individuals with sarcopenic obesity had more type 2 diabetes than those with obesity alone at baseline and 10 years prior (all P < 0.001).

Older adults with sarcopenic obesity had more adverse midlife cardiometabolic risks, particularly diabetes 10 years earlier, which suggests the importance of early identification of risk factors associated with sarcopenic obesity.