The prevalence of sarcopenic obesity and its relationship with type 2 diabetes in a nursing home

OBJECTIVE: Diabetes mellitus (DM), sarcopenia, and sarcopenic obesity (SO) in the elderly were related to frailty, morbidity, and mortality. The aim of this study was to deter-mine the contribution of diabetes mellitus to the prevalence of SO in a nursing home residents.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This cross-sec-tional study included 397 old-aged (>= 65 years) nursing home residents dwelling in Darulaceze Directorate Kayisdagi Campus of Istanbul. Exclu-sion criteria included <65 years of age, residing for less than a month, acute medical problems, and severe cognitive impairment (mini-mental state examination test score <= 10). Demographic char-acteristics, anthropometric measurements, nutri-tional status, and handgrip strength were evalu-ated for each participant. Sarcopenia was defined according to the European Working Group on Sar-copenia in Older People (EWGSOP) II criteria and obesity was defined with body mass index (BMI) >= 30 kg/m2. SO was the concomitant existence of sarcopenia and obesity together.RESULTS: Mean age of the participants was 77.95 +/- 7.94 (65-101) years (n=397). The preva-lence of probable sarcopenia was significant-ly higher in non-obese patients when compared to obese (48.1% vs. 29.3%, p=0.014), which was similar after the exclusion of malnourished res-idents. In DM patients (n=63), the prevalence of obesity, probable sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity were 30.2%, 42.2%, and 13.3%, which were 20.4%, 43.2%, and 6.5% in non-DM resi-dents, respectively.CONCLUSIONS: Although they did not reach statistical significance, obesity and sarcopenic obesity were more prevalent among diabetic pa-tients in a nursing home.

Automated summary

The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of diabetes mellitus to the prevalence of sarcopenic obesity in nursing home residents. The study found that obesity and sarcopenic obesity were more prevalent among diabetic patients.