Background: This study investigated whether smoking defined as smoking status and smoking level is associated with sarcopenia after the age of 50 years by sex using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Methods: The total number of subjects in this analysis was 8,622. Participants were queried on smoking status (current, past, never) and smoking level (light, ≤11.3 pack-years; medium, >11.3–24.5 pack-years; heavy, >24.5 pack-years). Sarcopenia was evaluated by dividing the body weight by the appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM/Wt). Logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between sarcopenia and smoking, after adjusting for potential confounders.
Results: Smoking status was not associated with sarcopenia in men and women, but smoking level and sarcopenia were significantly related in women. After adjusting for confounding factors, the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of sarcopenia in smokers was 0.383 (0.153–0.964) in the medium smoking group of women, and 3.456 (1.542–7.742) and 3.052 (1.292–7.207) in the heavy smoking group of women.
Conclusion: Therefore, our study identified smoking as a reversible and independent risk factor for sarcopenia and smoking defined by smoking level such as pack-years might be an appropriate definition from a sarcopenia perspective.