Introduction: Osteoporosis and sarcopenia are significant health problems that mainly affect older adults. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
Materials and methods: The study included 444 participants who had undergone a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scan, handgrip test, 4-m walking speed test, and bioimpedance analysis within the past year. Participants were classified into control, osteopenia, or osteoporosis groups according to the World Health Organization classification. Sarcopenia was diagnosed according to the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People-2 criteria.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 75.88 ± 7.20 years, and 80.9% were females. There were 144, 230, and 70 participants in the osteoporosis, osteopenia, and control groups, respectively. Probable sarcopenia was identified in 94 subjects, sarcopenia in 61, and severe sarcopenia in 72 participants. After adjusting for age, gender, and body mass index, probable sarcopenia and severe sarcopenia were associated with osteoporosis (p < 0.05). Low muscle strength, and low physical performance were associated with osteoporosis (p < 0.02). When osteoporosis was evaluated only according to the femoral neck T score, low muscle strength and low physical performance were found to be related not only to osteoporosis (p < 0.001), but also to osteopenia (p < 0.05). Additionally, probable sarcopenia was associated with femoral neck osteopenia (p < 0.01).
Conclusions: In this study, probable sarcopenia and severe sarcopenia were associated with osteoporosis in older adults. Furthermore, we found that low muscle strength, or dynapenia, which is the determining criterion of sarcopenia, was related to femoral neck osteopenia and osteoporosis.
Keywords: Dynapenia; Femur neck; Osteoporosis; Sarcopenia.