Association of body composition with sarcopenic obesity in elderly women

Alessandro Oliveira Silva,^1,2 Margô Gomes Oliveira Karnikowski,³ Silvana Schwerz Funghetto,³ Marina Morato Stival,³ Ricardo Moreno Lima,³ Jéssica Cardoso de Souza,¹ James Wilfred Navalta,⁴ Jonato Prestes<sup>1

1</sup>Catholic University of Brasilia, Brasilia, DF, Brazil; ²Center University of Brasilia, Brasilia, DF, Brazil; ³University of Brasilia, Brasilia, DF, Brazil; ⁴University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of sarcopenic obesity and its association with obesity and sarcopenia in elderly Brazilian women. Two hundred and seventy-two sedentary women with a mean age of 66.75 ± 5.38 years were recruited for participation in this study. Obesity was determined by both body mass index and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) evaluations. Sarcopenic obesity diagnosis was established from the ratio between fat-free mass and body surface area as obtained by DXA. There was no association of obesity with sarcopenic obesity (P = 0.424). In contrast, sarcopenia was significantly related to sarcopenic obesity (P < 0.001), although most of the elderly women with sarcopenia (n = 171) did not exhibit sarcopenic obesity. These results highlight the importance of diagnosing sarcopenic obesity as elderly women exhibiting sarcopenia could be either eutrophic or obese.

Keywords: sarcopenic obesity, aging, obesity, sarcopenia, health