Need another reason to work out? Sarcopenia Is Independently Associated with Cardiovascular Disease in Older Korean Adults

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23533671

PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e60119. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060119. Epub 2013 Mar 22.

Sarcopenia Is Independently Associated with Cardiovascular Disease in Older Korean Adults: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) from 2009.

Chin SO, Rhee SY, Chon S, Hwang YC, Jeong IK, Oh S, Ahn KJ, Chung HY, Woo JT, Kim SW, Kim JW, Kim YS, Ahn HY.

Source

Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The association between sarcopenia and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in elderly people has not been adequately assessed. The aim of this study was to investigate whether CVD is more prevalent in subjects with sarcopenia independent of other well-established cardiovascular risk factors in older Korean adults.

METHOD:

This study utilized the representative Korean population data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) which was conducted in 2009. Subjects older than 65 years of age with appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) determined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry were selected. The prevalence of sarcopenia in the older Korean adults was investigated, and it was determined whether sarcopenia is associated with CVD independent of other well-known risk factors.

RESULTS:

1,578 subjects aged 65 years and older with the data for ASM were selected, and the overall prevalence of sarcopenia was 30.3% in men and 29.3% in women. Most of the risk factors for CVD such as age, waist circumference, body mass index, fasting plasma glucose and total cholesterol showed significant negative correlations with the ratio between appendicular skeletal muscle mass and body weight. Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that sarcopenia was associated with CVD independent of other well-documented risk factors, renal function and medications (OR, 1.768; 95% CI, 1.075-2.909, P = 0.025).

CONCLUSIONS:

Sarcopenia was associated with the presence of CVD independent of other cardiovascular risk factors after adjusting renal function and medications.