Overweight, Obesity, and Late-Life Sarcopenia Among Men With Cardiovascular Disease, Israel

Little is known about the association between obesity and sarcopenia — age-related loss of muscle mass and function — among patients with cardiovascular disease. We investigated the association between overweight, obesity, and sarcopenia among community-dwelling men in Israel with cardiovascular disease. Methods A subset of 337 men (mean age at baseline 56.7 [SD, 6.5]) who previously (1990–1997) participated in the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention trial underwent a neurovascular evaluation as part of the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention Neurocognitive Study 15.0 (SD, 3.0) years after baseline and a sarcopenia evaluation 19.9 (SD, 1.0) years after baseline. We applied a multinomial logistic model to estimate odds ratios and 95% CIs for 3 categories of sarcopenia: no evidence of sarcopenia (ie, robust), probable sarcopenia, and sarcopenia. Results We found sarcopenia among 54.3% of participants with obesity (body mass index [BMI, in kg/m2] ≥30.0), 37.0% of participants who were overweight (25.0 ≤ BMI ≤29.9), and 24.8% of participants with normal weight (BMI 18.5 to 24.9). In a comparison of BMI ≥25.0 and BMI <25.0, adjusting for covariates, the odds ratio of having probable sarcopenia was 3.27 (95% CI, 1.68–6.36) and having sarcopenia was 5.31 (95% CI, 2.50–11.27). Conclusion We found a positive association between obesity and late-life sarcopenia and suggest that obesity might be an important modifiable risk factor related to sarcopenia among men with cardiovascular disease.