[Diagnosis and prevention of sarcopenic obesity should be emphasized]

Sarcopenic obesity is a clinical syndrome in which sarcopenia coexists with obesity. It is characterized by a decline in muscle mass and function combined with an increase in fat mass, thereby increasing the risk of adverse clinical outcomes in patients. For a long time, the lack of standardized diagnostic criteria has made it difficult to accurately determine the prevalence of sarcopenic obesity. In 2022, the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) and the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) jointly launched an initiative, for the first time reaching an expert consensus on the definition and diagnostic standards for sarcopenic obesity. This article focuses on recent advances in sarcopenic obesity, systematically summarizing its pathogenesis from four aspects: body composition changes, lifestyle and dietary alterations, metabolic/hormonal dysregulation, and gut microbiota dysbiosis, with emphasis on domestic and international diagnostic strategies. Meanwhile, it further explores the multifaceted detrimental effects on elderly quality of life and life expectancy, and proposes a comprehensive prevention and treatment framework centered on combined lifestyle and nutritional interventions, supplemented by pharmacotherapy, with multidisciplinary treatment (MDT) as the key strategy, aiming to provide theoretical basis and practical direction for clinical diagnosis and treatment of this disease.