Preliminary evaluation of the prevalence of sarcopenia in obese patients from Southern Italy

Objectives: Sarcopenic obesity has not yet been widely defined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of sarcopenia in a group of severely obese adults from southern Italy by using two different indexes: percentage of skeletal muscle mass (SMP) and skeletal muscle mass normalized for height (SMI); and to determine SMP and SMI cutoff points in a southern Italy reference population. Methods: Skeletal muscle mass of 131 consecutive obese adult outpatients (51 men and 80 women; ages 45-67 y; body mass index 44.6 ± 7.7 kg/m(2)), was assessed by bioimpedance analysis. SMP and SMI cutoff points to identify moderate and severe sarcopenia were calculated in a reference group of 500 young southern Italy adults (100 men and 400 women; ages 18-40 y; body mass index 25.2 ± 5.6 kg/m(2)) and applied to assess the prevalence of sarcopenia in the study population. Results: SMP cutoff points to identify moderate and severe sarcopenia were, 28.8% to 35.6% and ≤ 28.7% in men and 23.1% to 28.4% and ≤ 23% in women, respectively. The corresponding values for SMI were 8.44 to 9.53 kg/m(2) and ≤ 8.43 kg/m(2) in men, 6.49 to 7.32 kg/m(2) and ≤ 6.48 kg/m(2) in women. According to SMP, 23 of 51 (45.1%) men and 19 of 80 (23.8%) women were moderately sarcopenic; 28 of 51 (54.9%) men and 61 of 80 (76.3%) women met the definition of severe sarcopenia. Based on SMI, only 2 of 51 (3.9%) men were moderately sarcopenic. Conclusions: This study confirms that sarcopenia rates vary widely in obese patients depending on the criteria used. SMP as a screening tool to identify a sarcopenia at-risk population.