Sarcopenic obesity tied to knee osteoarthritis after menopause

In postmenopausal women, obesity with sarcopenia seems to have a greater effect on the development of knee osteoarthritis (OA) than obesity alone, a recent study has found.

Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 4,150 women, whose data were retrieved from the 2009–2011 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Participants were classified into four groups according to body composition: sarcopenic (appendicular skeletal muscle <23 percent) or not, and obese (body mass index ≥25.0 kg/m²) or not.

The primary outcome was knee OA identified by radiography.

Multiple groupwise comparisons showed that among postmenopausal women without sarcopenia, obesity was associated with a significantly higher percentage of radiographic knee OA (57.64 percent vs 41.54 percent; p<0.001). No such effects were reported for knee pain (p=0.658) and clinical knee OA (p=0.098).

Moreover, the presence of both sarcopenia and obesity led to the highest prevalence of radiographic knee OA, at 61.49 percent, compared with only 41.82 percent in nonobese sarcopenic women (p<0.001). Knee pain was likewise greater in the sarcopenic obese vs sarcopenic alone group (39.11 percent vs 27.55 percent; p<0.001).

In addition, having undergone hormone replacement therapy did not significantly affect sarcopenia status, appendicular skeletal muscle mass, and all three knee outcomes.

The observed impact of sarcopenic obesity of knee OA and the lack of such an effect by hormone replacement therapy suggested that “in knee OA, more preventive efforts should focus on reducing body fat and increasing muscle in postmenopausal women,” the researchers said.