Associations between dietary total antioxidant capacity and sarcopenia: a cross-sectional study

No study has investigated the relationship between dietary total antioxidant capacity and sarcopenia so far.

This study aimed to investigate the association between dietary Total Antioxidant Capacity (d-TAC) and sarcopenia in elderly adults.

In this cross-sectional study we enrolled 300 elderly people (150 men and 150 women) aged ≥ 55 years using cluster random sampling method. Sarcopenia was defined based on European Working Group on Sarcopenia (EWGSOP) definition. A DXA scanner, a squeeze bulb dynamometer and a 4-Meter walk gait speed test was used to measure Appendicular Skeletal Muscle (ASM), muscle strength and muscle performance respectively. We also used a Block-format 117-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess dietary intakes of participants. Multivariable logistic regression models were applied to examine the association between d-TAC and sarcopenia.

Mean ± SD age of study participants and their BMI was 66.8 ± 7.72 year and 27.3 ± 4.2 kg/m², respectively. People in the highest tertile of d-TAC had the greatest hand grip strength (11.9 ± 3.63 vs. 10.4 ± 3.55 psi, p = 0.009) and had lower odds of sarcopenia compared with those in the lowest tertile, either before (OR = 0.39; 95% CI: 0.17, 0.88) or after adjustment for potential confounders (OR = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.95). No other significant association was seen between d-TAC and components of sarcopenia.

We found an inverse association between dietary total antioxidant capacity and odds of sarcopenia. No significant association was seen between d-TAC and individual components of sarcopenia. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings.