The aim of this study is to investigate the association between four phenotypes of sarcopenia/obesity in older individuals and functional disability, malnutrition, and all-cause mortality. This study is a cross-sectional study, survival is 3 years. A total of 487 Chinese older adults were included with 283 (58.1%) females, a median age of 77 (69, 99) years. Sarcopenia was diagnosed according to skeletal muscle mass index, grip strength (GS), 5-time chair stand test, and gait speed test
obesity was diagnosed according to waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), and the percentage of body fat (PBF). Nutritional status was estimated with the Mini Nutritional Assessment short-form (MNA-SF) and functional health status was assessed using the Barthel Index (BI). The binary logistic regression analysis and the multivariate Cox regression analysis were utilized to investigate the association between sarcopenic/obesity phenotype and functional impairment, nutritional deficiency, and all-cause mortality. In the final-adjusted model, compared to patients with non-sarcopenic non-obesity phenotype, sarcopenic obesity is significantly associated with functional dependence (odds ratio [OR]: 3.83, 95% CI 1.47-9.97
P = 0.006), malnutrition (OR: 0.48, 95% CI 0.24-0.99
P = 0.047), and all-cause mortality (hazard ratio[HR]: 2.78, 95% CI 1.57-4.94
P = 0.001)
sarcopenia is significantly associated with malnutrition (OR: 2.48, 95% CI 1.09-5.65
P = 0.030), and all-cause mortality (HR:3.06, 95% CI 1.69-5.56
P <
0.001)
obesity is significantly associated with malnutrition (OR:0.11, 95% CI 0.05-0.22
P <
0.001). Consequently, it is advisable to incorporate sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity into the screening and treatment protocols for older adults in the community to effectively mitigate the adverse health consequences.