Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan 21:11:583825.
doi: 10.3389/fphys.2020.583825. eCollection 2020.

Prevalence of Sarcopenic Obesity Using Different Definitions and the Relationship With Strength and Physical Performance in the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging

Sarah A Purcell  1   2   3 , Michelle Mackenzie  1 , Thiago G Barbosa-Silva  4   5 , Isabelle J Dionne  6   7 , Sunita Ghosh  8 , Mario Siervo  9 , Ming Ye  10 , Carla M Prado  1
Affiliations

Prevalence of Sarcopenic Obesity Using Different Definitions and the Relationship With Strength and Physical Performance in the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging

Sarah A Purcell et al. Front Physiol. .

Abstract

Sarcopenic obesity is associated with several negative health outcomes. However, the prevalence of this condition - and the relationship to physical performance parameters - varies across definitions. The aim of this cross-sectional investigation was to describe the prevalence of sarcopenic obesity using different published definitions and their relationship with handgrip strength and walking speed in older Canadian adults. Individuals aged 65+ in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (n = 11,803; 49.6% male, 50.4% female) were included. Body composition was measured using dual X-ray absorptiometry. Sarcopenic obesity was defined using 29 definitions. Low handgrip strength was identified as < 27 kg in males and < 16 kg in females and poor physical performance was defined as gait speed ≤ 0.8 m/s. The prevalence of sarcopenic obesity ranged from 0.1 to 85.3% in males, and from 0 to 80.4% in females. Sarcopenic obesity was frequently associated with low handgrip strength (p < 0.05) in both males (14/17 definitions, 82.4%) and females (21/29 definitions, 72.4%). In very few definitions, sarcopenic obesity was associated with slow gait speed (males: 1/17 definitions [6.7%]; females: 2/29 [6.9%]). In conclusion, the prevalence of sarcopenic obesity varied greatly according to definitions and sarcopenic obesity was frequently associated with low handgrip strength.

Keywords: CLSA; Geriatrics; body composition; community-dwelling older individuals; muscle strength; older people; physical function.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Variability in lean soft tissue (LST) by body weight (A) and body mass index (BMI) (B). Males, n = 5,585; females, n = 5,605. The rectangles and corresponding data are examples of LST variability in two individuals with similar body weight or BMI.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Prevalence of different body composition phenotypes by sex and age group. HA, high adiposity; LM, low muscularity; LA, low adiposity; LM, low muscularity. High and low adiposity and muscularity defined as > or < 50th decile of age-, sex-, weight-adjusted fat mass index (adiposity) and appendicular skeletal muscle index (muscularity) from Prado et al. (2014).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bales C. W., Ritchie C. S. (2002). Sarcopenia, weight loss, and nutritional frailty in the elderly. Annu. Rev. Nutr. 22 309–323. 10.1146/annurev.nutr.22.010402.102715 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Batsis J. A., Barre L. K., Mackenzie T. A., Pratt S. I., Lopez-Jimenez F., Bartels S. J. (2013). Variation in the prevalence of sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity in older adults associated with different research definitions: dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2004. J. Am. Geriatr. Soc. 61 974–980. 10.1111/jgs.12260 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Batsis J. A., Mackenzie T. A., Lopez-Jimenez F., Bartels S. J. (2015). Sarcopenia, sarcopenic obesity, and functional impairments in older adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 1999-2004. Nutr. Res. 35 1031–1039. 10.1016/j.nutres.2015.09.003 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Batsis J. A., Zagaria A. B. (2018). Addressing Obesity in Aging Patients. Med. Clin. North Am. 102 65–85. 10.1016/j.mcna.2017.08.007 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baumgartner R. N., Koehler K. M., Gallagher D., Romero L., Heymsfield S. B., Ross R. R., et al. (1998). Epidemiology of sarcopenia among the elderly in New Mexico. Am. J. Epidemiol. 147 755–763. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources