Association between skeletal muscle mass or percent body fat and metabolic syndrome development in Japanese women: A 7-year prospective study

Abstract

Previous cross-sectional studies have indicated that low relative appendicular lean mass (ALM) against body weight (divided by body weight, ALM/Wt, or divided by body mass index, ALM/BMI) was negatively associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS). Conversely, previous cross-sectional studies have indicated that the absolute ALM or ALM divided by squared height (ALM/Ht2) were positively associated with MetS. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the association between low absolute or relative skeletal muscle mass, leg muscle power, or percent body fat and the development of MetS in Japanese women in a 7-y prospective study. The study participants included 346 Japanese women aged 26 to 85 years. The participants were divided into low and high groups based on the median values of ALM/Wt, ALM/BMI, ALM/Ht2, absolute ALM, or leg power. The longitudinal relationship between ALM indices or leg power and MetS development was examined using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models (average follow-up duration 7 years, range 1 to 10 years). During follow-up, 24 participants developed MetS. MetS incidence was higher in the low ALM/Wt group than the high ALM/Wt group even after controlling for age, obesity, waist circumference, family history of diabetes, smoking, and physical activity [adjusted hazard ratio = 5.60 (95% CI; 1.04–30.0)]. In contrast, MetS incidence was lower in the low ALM/Ht2 group than the high ALM/Ht2 group [adjusted hazard ratio = 10.6 (95%CI; 1.27–89.1)]. MetS incidence was not significantly different between the low and high ALM/BMI, absolute ALM, and leg power groups. Both ALM/Ht2 and ALM/Wt were not significant predictive variables for MetS development when fat mass or percent body fat was taken into account in the Cox model. At the very least, the results of this study underscore the importance of body composition measurements in that percent body fat, but not ALM, is associated with MetS development.

Associations of appendicular lean mass and abdominal adiposity with insulin resistance in older adults: A cross-sectional study

“…The positive association between skeletal muscle mass and insulin resistance in overweight and obese individuals is consistent with prior studies, which have shown that sarcopenia contributes more to insulin resistance in older adults than sarcopenic obesity or obesity alone [ 3 , 4 , 12 , 17 ]. It is known that higher lean mass is often accompanied by higher fat mass in older adults [ 20 , 21 ].…”

“…ALM was significantly associated with insulin resistance in overweight and obese individuals. This is similar to a longitudinal, prospective cohort study where an association between appendicular lean mass and metabolic syndrome was found [ 4 ]. A cross-sectional study also found that decreased lower limb muscle mass and appendicular muscle mass was associated with increased insulin resistance [ 17 ].…”

“…While obesity has long been implicated in the development of insulin resistance, it is now known that decreased muscle mass or sarcopenia also plays a role [1][2][3][4][5]. Typical aging-associated changes of body composition include loss of lean muscle mass and accumulation of adipose tissue [6].…”

Role of Incretins in Muscle Functionality, Metabolism, and Body Composition in Breast Cancer: A Metabolic Approach to Understanding This Pathology

“…Some studies indicate that several diseases related to metabolic syndrome (MetS) are associated with low MQI/BMI and increased mortality due to insulin resistance, which has an inverse correlation with insulin sensitivity [34]. Our study found that individuals with obesity exhibited a worse MQI, which might be linked to insulin resistance and high values in the MetS parameters [35,36], with statistically significant correlation coefficients in both cases, a condition observed in our current report on obese women with and without cancer [34].…”

Association of skeletal muscle function, quantity, and quality with gut microbiota in Japanese adults: A cross‐sectional study

“…Five trials were performed at 15‐s intervals, and the average of the two highest outputs (W) was employed. LEP divided by body weight was used for the analysis 23 …”