The Association Between Anemia and Sarcopenia among Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Taipei City, Taiwan

Abstract

<p>目的：已知罹患肌少症之風險會隨著年齡增長、老化而顯著提升，貧血在老年族群中也是常見之臨床問題，故本研究旨在探討社區老年人口貧血與肌少症之相關性。</p> <p>方法：本橫斷性研究之樣本為自2014年3月至2015年6月期間、於台北市某區域醫院接受免費成人健檢、65歲以上之老年族群。肌少症之診斷依2019年亞洲肌少症診治共識訂定（合併低肌肉力量與質量），血液中血紅素濃度在男性小於13 g/dL、女性小於12 g/dL則為貧血。統計部分以二元羅吉斯迴歸檢定進行分析，並校正多種潛在風險因子如性別、年齡、BMI、吸菸、喝酒、運動習慣、慢性病史、憂鬱症及失智症之篩檢結果等，也再將受試者依性別分組後進行次群體分析。</p> <p>結果：本研究共1,222名受試者中，742名(60.7%)為女性。於肌少症組別中，25.2%具貧血，無肌少症組則僅有8.9%有貧血，達統計上之顯著差異(p<0.001)。經校正之二元羅吉斯迴歸分析顯示，貧血之受試者較無貧血者有較高之肌少症風險(OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.30-3.05)。次群體分析中，女性組別內、具貧血之受試者與無貧血者相比，罹患肌少症的風險同樣較高(OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.18-3.73)，但於男性組卻無此發現。</p> <p>結論：本研究顯示於65歲以上之社區老年族群中，貧血與肌少症具正相關性，女性尤為顯著。</p> <p> </p><p>Purpose: Sarcopenia has been known to be associated with older people. Since anemia was also prevalent in older adults, our study aimed to analyze the association between anemia and sarcopenia among community-dwelling older individuals.</p> <p>Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using data collected during a free annual health exam for older adults in Taipei between March 2014 and July 2015. Participants were diagnosed with sarcopenia, as defined by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 consensus. Anemia was diagnosed when serum hemoglobin concentrations were less than 13 g/dL in men or 12 g/dL in women. Binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between anemia and sarcopenia, after adjustment for potential confounding variables including demographic characteristics (sex and age), lifestyle factors (status of smoking and alcohol drinking), physical activity, health conditions (body mass index [BMI] and comorbidities) and the results of screening tests for dementia and depression. Subgroup analyses, stratified by sex, were also performed.</p> <p>Results: Among 1,222 older participants, 60.7% were women. Among patients with sarcopenia, 25.2% had anemia, whereas among those without sarcopenia, only 8.9% had anemia (p<0.001). Binary logistic regression analyses, adjusted for other covariates, demonstrated that participants with anemia had an increased risk of sarcopenia compared with those without anemia (odds ratio [OR] 1.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.30-3.05). In the subgroup analysis, a higher OR was observed for the anemia group compared with the non-anemia group in women (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.18-3.73) but not men. </p> <p>Conclusion: The study results showed a significant association between anemia and sarcopenia in individuals older than 65 years, especially women. These insights have implications for interventions to prevent sarcopenia development.</p> <p> </p>