Associations of sarcopenic obesity versus sarcopenia alone with functionality

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Nutritional Science
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• The operational definition of sarcopenia (S) is established, but sarcopenic obesity (SO) remains obscure, hindering prevalence and relevance assessments.
• It is unclear if SO is associated with worse functionality compared to S alone.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the associations of SO and S alone with functional measures using alternative SO definitions.
• To document the prevalence of SO based on these alternative definitions.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective cross-sectional study of 1468 community-dwelling adults over 60 years.
• Evaluated body composition, handgrip strength, and functional health status (ADL, IADL).
• Applied three alternative definitions of SO based on EWGSOP2 criteria for S and fat percentile for obesity.

Main Results:

• Prevalence of SO varied significantly by definition (0.2% to 4.1%).
• SO definitions using "probable S" or LMM adjusted by BMI showed considerable prevalence.
• Multivariate analyses indicated S alone was associated with higher odds of impaired ADL and IADL than SO.

Conclusions:

• The SO definition "obesity + confirmed S (LMM adjusted by height^2)" showed negligible prevalence in populations without underweight.
• Among sarcopenic individuals, obesity may offer a protective effect against functional limitations.