HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 89/6/1895    most recent ajcn.2008.26950v1 Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Rolland, Y. Articles by Vellas, B. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Rolland, Y. Articles by Vellas, B. Agricola Articles by Rolland, Y. Articles by Vellas, B.

Difficulties with physical function associated with obesity, sarcopenia, and sarcopenic-obesity in community-dwelling elderly women: the EPIDOS (EPIDemiologie de l'OSteoporose) Study^1,2,3

¹ From Service de Médecine Interne et de Gérontologie Clinique, Hôpital La Grave-Casselardit, Toulouse, France (YR, GAvK, and BV); Unité Inserm 558 (Dr Hélène Grandjean), Faculté de Médecine de Toulouse, Toulouse, France (YR, VL-C, and BV); Laboratoire d'Épidémiologie et Santé Communautaire, Faculté de Médecine, Toulouse, France(VL-C and CC); School of Kinesiology and Health Studies and the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada (IJ); and the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, Saint Louis VA Medical Center and the Division of Geriatrics, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO (JEM).

² Supported by the Health Minister of France.

³ Address correspondence to Y Rolland, Service de Médecine Interne et de Gérontologie Clinique, Hôpital La Grave-Casselardit, 170 avenue de Casselardit, 31300 Toulouse, France. E-mail: rolland.y{at}chu-toulouse.fr.

Background: In elders, decreased muscle mass (sarcopenia) and increased fat mass (obesity) may contribute to difficulties with physical function.

Objective: The objective was to examine the association of obesity, sarcopenia, and their combination (sarcopenic-obesity) with self-reported difficulties performing physical function in a cohort of community-dwelling elderly women.

Design: We assessed muscle and fat mass by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and self-reported difficulties with physical function in 1308 healthy women aged 75 y. Sarcopenia was defined as an appendicular skeletal muscle mass 2 SD below the mean in a young female reference group. Obesity was defined as a percentage body fat above the 60th percentile. Thirty-six sarcopenic-obese, 90 purely sarcopenic, 435 purely obese, and 747 women with a healthy body composition were studied. Anthropometric measures, health status, lifestyle habits, and self-reported difficulties with 6 different physical functions were obtained.

Results: Compared with women with a healthy body composition and after adjustment for confounders, purely sarcopenic women had no increased odds of having difficulties for all of the physical functions assessed, purely obese women had a 44–79% higher odds of having difficulties with most of the physical functions assessed (P < 0.05), and sarcopenic-obese women had a 2.60 higher odds of having difficulty climbing stairs and a 2.35 higher odds of having difficulty going down stairs (all P < 0.05).

Conclusions: Sarcopenia is not associated with physical difficulties in the absence of obesity. However, in the presence of obesity, sarcopenia tends to add difficulty for some physical functions.