Takeaway
- Men with pre-sarcopenia and women with sarcopenia have an increased risk of developing osteoporosis.
Why this matters
- Findings suggest that early public health strategies aimed at improving physical capabilities may delay or prevent the onset of osteoporosis.
Study design
- A prospective study involving 168,682 participants (age, 37-70 years) from the UK Biobank.
- The association of sarcopenia and its individual components with incident osteoporosis was assessed as per age groups and osteoporosis subtypes (with and without pathological fractures).
- Funding: None.
Key results
- After a median follow-up of 7.4 years, 6296 participants had osteoporosis.
- Men with pre-sarcopenia (adjusted HR [aHR], 1.30; 95% CI, 1.03-1.63; P=.025) and women with sarcopenia (aHR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.33-2.08; P<.001) had an increased risk of osteoporosis.
- The associations remained strong in participants with osteoporosis and without pathological fractures, but weaker associations were seen in those with pathological fractures.
- Within the individual components, the risk of incident osteoporosis increased in both sexes with:
- low muscle mass (aHRwomen, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.22-1.51 and aHRmen, 3.07; 95% CI,1.68-5.59); and
- slow gait speed (aHRwomen, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.17-1.45 and aHRmen, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.43-2.02).
- Low grip strength was linked to an increased risk of incident osteoporosis in men (aHR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.15-1.65), but not in women.
- There was no significant interaction between sarcopenia and incident osteoporosis by age groups.
Limitations
- UK Biobank is not representative of the entire UK population in terms of sociodemographic, lifestyle and prevalent disease.
This clinical summary originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
