Examining the Association Between Serum Leptin and Sarcopenic Obesity
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Published on: March 21, 2021
Zhe-Yu Yang1,2, Wei-Liang Chen2,3,4
1Department of General Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital; and School of Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Objective:
Sarcopenic obesity is an emerging geriatric syndrome among elderly individuals. Studies revealed a complicated pathogenesis between sarcopenia and obesity. Leptin, a proinflammatory adipokine, has been implicated in the mechanism of sarcopenic obesity. This study investigated the relationship between serum leptin level and sarcopenic obesity.
Methods:
The study included 4063 participants aged 60 years and older from the NHANES III database. Sarcopenia was defined as a skeletal muscle index (SMI) less than one standard deviation below the young adult value. Obesity was defined as a body mass index (BMIF) over 30 kg/m2. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to examine the association between serum leptin level and sarcopenic obesity.
Results:
In adjusted models, serum leptin level was positively correlated with BMI (β: 1.33, p value < 0.001) and negatively correlated with SMI (β: -0.091, p value = 0.001). A significant association between serum leptin level and sarcopenic obesity was found in multivariate analysis (β: 4.011, p value=0.014).
Conclusion:
Our study demonstrated that serum leptin level was related to an increased risk of sarcopenic obesity. This epidemiologic finding suggests that leptin may play a role in sarcopenic obesity.
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