Abstract
This article aims to identify the prevalence of and factors associated with dynapenic abdominal obesity (DAO) in older adults in a city in the northern region of Brazil. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 382 community-dwelling older adults in Macapa, Amapa, Brazil. Socioeconomic, clinical, and health information were collected using a structured form. DAO was defined as a combination of dynapenia (handgrip strength of < 26 kgf for men and < 16 kgf for women) and abdominal obesity (abdominal circumference > 102 cm for men and > 88 cm for women). Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed using chi-squared tests, Student's t-tests, and a Poisson regression. The prevalence of DAO was 10.73%. In the preliminary bivariate analysis, the variables of age range, marital status, number of diseases, functional disability for basic and instrumental activities of daily living, gait speed, and level of physical activity met the established criterion. The final model indicated that only gait speed was a predictor of DAO in older adults. DAO affects nearly 11% of community-dwelling older adults from northern Brazil; gait speed was a predictor of DAO and could be a useful tool for managing and monitoring this population's health.
Highlights
MethodThe aging process is marked by several physiological changes that lead to the progressive decline of all organic functions[1]
Marital status, number of diseases, functional disability for basic and instrumental activities of daily living, level of physical activity, and gait speed all met the pre-established criterion in the crude analysis (p < 0.20)
The final model indicated that only gait speed remained associated with dynapenic abdominal obesity (DAO) (PR = 0.17; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.050.54; p = 0.002), suggesting that an increase in one unit of gait speed may decrease the probability of occurrence of this condition by 83% in older adults (Table 2)
Summary
MethodThe aging process is marked by several physiological changes that lead to the progressive decline of all organic functions[1]. A reduction in muscle mass alone cannot fully explain losses of muscle strength[4]; the term “dynapenia” has been recently coined to describe the aging-associated loss of muscle strength as an independent event Another salient change in body composition that humans experience during the aging process is the rise in body fat mass. Fat accumulated in the abdominal area is associated with more severe impacts on metabolic disorders than overall obesity[7,8,9] Both dynapenia and abdominal obesity are important predictors of poor outcomes, but the confluence of both is a downward spiral that may lead to disability[10] and multimorbidity[11]. Dynapenia and abdominal obesity together may better predict functional disability than each phenomenon individually[10]
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