Body composition and its association with cardiometabolic risk factors in the elderly: A focus on sarcopenic obesity

Abstract

Important changes inbodycompositionwith aging are a progressive loss of muscle mass and increase of fat mass. Despite their enormous clinical importance,bodycompositionchanges such assarcopenicobesityin theelderlyare under-recognized. This study aimed to examine the relationship ofbodycompositionwith a wide variety ofcardiometabolicriskfactorsamong 2943 subjects (1250 men and 1693 women) aged 60 years or older from Korean National Health Examination and Nutrition Survey (KNHANES). Sarcopenia was defined as an appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) divided by weight (%) of < 1 SD below the sex-specific mean for young adults.Obesitywas defined as abodymass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m(2).Bodycompositionwas categorized into four non-overlapping groups: thesarcopenicobese,sarcopenicnonobese, nonsarcopenic obese, and nonsarcopenic nonobese groups. A wide variety ofcardiometabolicriskfactors, including blood pressure (BP), glucose tolerance indices, lipid profiles, inflammatory markers, and vitamin D level, were compared according tobodycompositiongroup. The prevalence ofsarcopenicobesitywas 18.4% in men and 25.8% in women. In both sexes, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and metabolic syndrome was highly prevalent in thesarcopenicobese group. Serum insulin level, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), triglyceride levels, and ferritin levels were the highest in thesarcopenicobese group in both men and women, whereas HDL-cholesterol and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels were the lowest in thesarcopenicobese group. Thesarcopenicobese group was more closely associated with insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease (CVD)riskfactorsthan any other group in thiselderlypopulation.