Applied nutritional investigationPreliminary evaluation of the prevalence of sarcopenia in obese patients from Southern Italy

ObjectivesSarcopenic obesity has not yet been widely defined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of sarcopenia in a group of severely obese adults from southern Italy by using two different indexes: percentage of skeletal muscle mass (SMP) and skeletal muscle mass normalized for height (SMI); and to determine SMP and SMI cutoff points in a southern Italy reference population.MethodsSkeletal muscle mass of 131 consecutive obese adult outpatients (51 men and 80 women; ages 45-67 y; body mass index 44.6 ± 7.7 kg/m2), was assessed by bioimpedance analysis. SMP and SMI cutoff points to identify moderate and severe sarcopenia were calculated in a reference group of 500 young southern Italy adults (100 men and 400 women; ages 18-40 y; body mass index 25.2 ± 5.6 kg/m2) and applied to assess the prevalence of sarcopenia in the study population.ResultsSMP cutoff points to identify moderate and severe sarcopenia were, 28.8% to 35.6% and ≤28.7% in men and 23.1% to 28.4% and ≤23% in women, respectively. The corresponding values for SMI were 8.44 to 9.53 kg/m2 and ≤8.43 kg/m2 in men, 6.49 to 7.32 kg/m2 and ≤6.48 kg/m2 in women. According to SMP, 23 of 51 (45.1%) men and 19 of 80 (23.8%) women were moderately sarcopenic; 28 of 51 (54.9%) men and 61 of 80 (76.3%) women met the definition of severe sarcopenia. Based on SMI, only 2 of 51 (3.9%) men were moderately sarcopenic.ConclusionsThis study confirms that sarcopenia rates vary widely in obese patients depending on the criteria used. SMP as a screening tool to identify a sarcopenia at-risk population.