ObjectivesIt has been reported that low skeletal muscle mass correlates with knee osteoarthritis in obese individuals. This study aimed to investigate whether lower limb skeletal muscle mass is independently associated with knee osteoarthritis in the general population.Materials and MethodsThis cross-sectional study used public data from the Fourth and Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Subjects included 4924 community-dwelling adults aged ≥50 years (821 subjects with knee osteoarthritis and 4,103 controls). Skeletal muscle mass index (SMI) was calculated from the appendicular skeletal muscle mass measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Independent effects of total and lower limb SMI values on knee osteoarthritis were determined using odds ratios (OR) adjusted for age, sex, obesity, total femur bone mineral density, serum vitamin D level, diabetes mellitus status, and physical activity on multivariate logistic regression analysis.ResultsThe adjusted logistic regression model revealed that older age, female sex, and obesity were significantly associated with knee osteoarthritis. A higher serum vitamin D level was also positively correlated with knee osteoarthritis (OR, 1.015; 95% CI, 1.003–1.027; P = 0.010). Although total SMI was not significantly associated with knee osteoarthritis (OR, 0.976; 95% CI, 0.946–1.007; P = 0.127), a low lower limb SMI had an independent effect on knee osteoarthritis (OR, 0.941; 95% CI, 0.900–0.983; P = 0.006).ConclusionsLow skeletal muscle mass in the lower limbs but not in the whole body was independently associated with knee osteoarthritis.