Sex- and age-specific effects of energy intake and physical activity on sarcopenia

Yu Jin Cho,Minseon Park,Jae Moon Yun,Youn-Hee Lim,Hyung-Jin Yoon

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-66249-6

Yu Jin Cho, Minseon Park + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66249-6

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Abstract

Sarcopenia is a common health issue that is not limited to only elderly patients. However, many studies have reported factors to prevent sarcopenia only in susceptible groups. This study evaluates the relationship of the total energy intake to basal metabolic rate ratio (EI/BMR) and physical activity (PA) with sarcopenia. A second aim was to analyze the interaction between EI/BMR and PA by sex and age. We analyzed 16,313 subjects aged ≥ 19 years who had dual‒energy X-ray absorptiometry data. Sarcopenia was defined as appendicular lean mass/weight (%) that was 1 standard deviation below the sex-specific mean value for a young reference group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine the interaction between EI/BMR and PA. In this study, as EI/BMR increased, the risk of sarcopenia decreased, particularly in the older groups. Both high PA and high EI/BMR were independently related to the reduced risk of sarcopenia and showed additive effects on reducing the risk in young male and older groups. However, high PA was associated with an increased risk of sarcopenia in the young female group with low energy intake. Our findings suggest that an adequate balance between energy intake and PA is related to a low risk of sarcopenia, especially in young females.

Highlights

Sarcopenia is a common health issue that is not limited to only elderly patients
The effect of energy intake to basal metabolic rate ratio (EI/basal metabolic rate (BMR)) and physical activity (PA) on the odds ratios (ORs) of sarcopenia were similar to those in total older group, regardless of obesity status (Fig. 4b). We found that both a high level of PA (≥19.8 metabolic equivalent of task (MET)-h/week, median value) and high EI/BMR (≥1.39 EI/BMR, median value) showed significant positive association with the risk of sarcopenia in the young male group and older group
A high level of PA with low energy intake was associated with a high risk of sarcopenia in the young female group

Summary

Introduction

Many studies have reported factors to prevent sarcopenia only in susceptible groups. As EI/BMR increased, the risk of sarcopenia decreased, in the older groups. High PA was associated with an increased risk of sarcopenia in the young female group with low energy intake. Our findings suggest that an adequate balance between energy intake and PA is related to a low risk of sarcopenia, especially in young females. Many reports have mainly referred to various risk factors of sarcopenia in these susceptible groups. In 2019, Goh et al reported that sarcopenia was significantly associated with the severe nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) independent of visceral fat and other metabolic confounders, and the association was significantly stronger in younger age group[16]. The ‘walking practice rate’, which represents the level of PA, decreased by 20% from 60.7% in 2005 to 40.2% in 2018. (Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2017)

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