Little is known about the independent and joint effects of the energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index (E-DII) and dietary diversity score (DDS) on sarcopenia and its components (low muscle mass, low muscle strength, and low physical performance). A total of 155,669 UK Biobank participants with ≥1 (maximum 5) 24 h dietary assessments were included in this cross-sectional analysis. We used logistic regression models to investigate the associations of E-DII and DDS with sarcopenia and its three components. We further examined the joint effects of E-DII and DDS on sarcopenia and its components using additive and multiplicative interaction analyses. We observed that lower E-DII and higher DDS were associated with lower odds of sarcopenia and its components. There were significant joint associations of E-DII and DDS with sarcopenia and low physical performance (p-interaction < 0.05) on the multiplicative interactive scale. Our study suggests that lower dietary inflammatory potential and higher dietary diversity might be important protective factors against sarcopenia and its components. More cases of sarcopenia and low physical performance might be preventable by adherence to a more anti-inflammatory diet combined with a higher dietary diversity.
Keywords: dietary diversity score; energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index; joint association; muscle mass; muscle strength; physical performance; sarcopenia.