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 Dec 23;14(1):44.
doi: 10.3390/nu14010044.

Malnutrition, Sarcopenia, and Malnutrition-Sarcopenia Syndrome in Older Adults with COPD

Aleksandra Kaluźniak-Szymanowska  1 , Roma Krzymińska-Siemaszko  1 , Ewa Deskur-Śmielecka  1 , Marta Lewandowicz  1 , Beata Kaczmarek  1 , Katarzyna Wieczorowska-Tobis  1
Affiliations

Malnutrition, Sarcopenia, and Malnutrition-Sarcopenia Syndrome in Older Adults with COPD

Aleksandra Kaluźniak-Szymanowska et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Purpose: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death in the world population. In addition to airflow obstruction, COPD is associated with multiple systemic manifestations, including impaired nutritional status or malnutrition and changes in body composition (low muscle mass, LMM). Poor nutritional status and sarcopenia in subjects with COPD leads to a worse prognosis and increases health-related costs. Data from previous studies indicate that 30-60% of subjects with COPD are malnourished, 20-40% have low muscle mass, and 15-21.6% have sarcopenia. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of malnutrition, sarcopenia, and malnutrition-sarcopenia syndrome in elderly subjects with COPD and investigate the relationship between COPD severity and these conditions.

Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study involving 124 patients with stable COPD, aged ≥60, participating in a stationary pulmonary rehabilitation program. Nutritional status was assessed following the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria and sarcopenia with the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People 2 (EWGSOP2) criteria. The results of pulmonary function tests and exercise capacity were obtained from the hospital database.

Results: 22.6% of participants had malnutrition according to the GLIM criteria. Subjects with malnutrition had lower gait speed (p = 0.0112) and worse results of the Six Minute Walk Test. Sixteen participants (12.9%) had sarcopenia; 12 subjects with sarcopenia had concomitant malnutrition. The prevalence of severe and very severe obstruction (GOLD3/GOLD4) was 91.7%. It was significantly higher in patients with malnutrition-sarcopenia syndrome.

Conclusions: Malnutrition was found in nearly one out of four subjects with COPD, while sarcopenia was one out of seven patients. About 10% of our study sample had malnutrition-sarcopenia syndrome. The prevalence of severe and very severe obstruction was significantly higher in patients with malnutrition-sarcopenia syndrome.

Keywords: EWGSOP2; GLIM; diagnosis; older individuals; screening.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Severity of COPD according to the GOLD classification in the study population.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of subjects with malnutrition, sarcopenia and malnutrition-sarcopenia syndrome. Notes: GLIM, Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition; MSS, malnutrition-sarcopenia syndromeEWGSOP2, European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People 2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. 2021 GOLD Reports. [(accessed on 3 August 2021)]. Available online: https://goldcopd.org/2021-gold-reports/
    1. Varmaghani M., Dehghani M., Heidari E., Sharifi F., Saeedi Moghaddam S., Farzadfar F. Global Prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. East Mediterr. Health J. 2019;25:47–57. doi: 10.26719/emhj.18.014. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Munhoz da Rocha Lemos Costa T., Costa F.M., Jonasson T.H., Moreira C.A., Boguszewski C.L., Borba V.Z.C. Body Composition and Sarcopenia in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Endocrine. 2018;60:95–102. doi: 10.1007/s12020-018-1533-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Matkovic Z., Cvetko D., Rahelic D., Esquinas C., Zarak M., Miravitlles M., Tudoric N. Nutritional Status of Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Relation to Their Physical Performance. COPD. 2017;14:626–634. doi: 10.1080/15412555.2017.1386643. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Raad S., Smith C., Allen K. Nutrition Status and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Can We Move Beyond the Body Mass Index? Nutr. Clin. Pract. 2019;34:330–339. doi: 10.1002/ncp.10306. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms