Poor muscle health common in people living with obesity, finds study

Individuals with obesity often experience poor muscle health due to several factors. Excessive adipose tissue accumulation can lead to chronic low-grade inflammation, which contributes to muscle insulin resistance and impairs muscle function.

Additionally, increased fat mass can result in mechanical loading on muscles, leading to reduced muscle strength and endurance. Hormonal imbalances associated with obesity, such as elevated levels of adipokines and decreased levels of anabolic hormones, further exacerbate muscle dysfunction.

In their study, lead researcher Dr Jennifer Linge and colleagues utilized software to analyze scans from 56,109 participants enrolled in the UK Biobank study. They assessed muscle volume (indicating muscle quantity) and muscle fat (indicating muscle quality) and calculated personalized muscle volume z-scores to compare participants' muscle volume to the average for their sex and body size.

Participants were categorized into four groups based on their muscle composition: normal, high muscle fat only, low muscle volume z-score only, or adverse muscle composition (both high muscle fat and low muscle volume z-score).

Among the 9,840 participants with obesity, 2,001 (20.3%) had adverse muscle composition. Over an average follow-up period of 3.9 years, 174 participants died, with the most common causes of death being ischaemic disease and hypertensive disease.

The results showed that participants with adverse muscle composition were three times more likely to die during follow-up than those with normal muscle composition. Even after adjusting for factors such as hand grip strength, other diseases, lifestyle habits, as well as sex, age, type 2 diabetes, and smoking status, the association between poor muscle health and all-cause mortality remained significant. In this fully adjusted model, adverse muscle composition was linked to a 70% higher risk of early death.

The findings revealed that adverse muscle composition was common in individuals living with obesity and significantly associated with all-cause mortality. This emphasized the critical importance of evaluating both muscle volume and muscle fat when assessing muscle health.

Reference: Dr Jennifer Linge AMRA Medical, a health informatics company in Linköping, Sweden. Et al., Poor muscle health is common in people living with obesity – and increases the risk of an early death, Swedish study of people in UK finds; EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF OBESITY; MEETING: European Congress on Obesity (ECO2024)