Improving the functional detection of sarcopenic obesity: prevalence and handgrip scoring in the OBESAR cohort

The study objectives were: 1) to detect early signs of low muscle function and assess sarcopenic obesity (SO) prevalence in patients with obesity; and 2) to introduce a new online diagnostic tool for scoring handgrip strength (HGS), adjusted for age and sex.

Patients from the OBESAR cohort (184 men and 499 women) were tested for body composition and functional testing (chair stand test or HGS based on the cutoffs from the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism [ESPEN]/European Association for the Study of Obesity [EASO] or adjusted HGS [adHGS] based on reference values), and SO prevalence was calculated accordingly.

Among the 683 patients (mean [SD], age 42.6 [12.8] years; BMI 44.4 [6.3] kg/m²), HGS averaged 25.6 (6.8) kg for women and 43.2 (10.4) kg for men. A total of 25.2% of patients had adHGS lower than the 10th percentile, but this was true for only 5.6% using ESPEN/EASO cutoffs of HGS. SO prevalence rates were different according to functional tests: 5.4%, 24.5%, and 3.2% for HGS, adHGS, and the chair stand test, respectively.

Using adHGS through a scoring process considering age and sex may help to detect early signs of SO in a primary care setting in order to better prevent SO through a personalized approach in adults with obesity. A free online application, "GRip And Sarcopenia Prediction" (GRASP), is proposed to diagnose probable SO.