Association of the new index of sarcopenic obesity with physical fitness in healthy Saudi men and women

L. Al-Dokhi

Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. lailadokhi@yahoo.com

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• Metabolism

OBJECTIVE: Adults tend to gain weight as they get older. This gain of weight as a result of loss of muscles mass and deposition of fat, this leads to impaired insulin action and glucose uptake, which lead to the development of diabetes. Also, deposition of adipose tissue from the peripheral into the central visceral adipose depot predisposes to vascular disease. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship and gender differences between muscle mass/fat mass ratio with physical fitness in Saudi adult population.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This epidemiological cross-sectional study included 461 healthy adult subjects aged 18-72 years (mean±SD, 36.78±14.17) recruited from King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (KKUH, KSU, Riyadh). All participants underwent body composition analysis with a commercially available body analyzer measurements included body weight, body mass index (BMI), muscle mass, protein mass, fat mass, and fitness scoring based on to get values.

RESULTS: The results of the current study showed a significantly high BMI (p = 0.0001) and fat mass (p = 0.0001) in females with low muscles mass (p = 0.0001), and Fitness score (p = 0.0003) compared to males. Linear regression analysis revealed high significant correlation between fitness score and muscle mass/fat mass ratio.

CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of obesity, increased body fat mass and poor fitness is high in Saudi adult population with significantly lower fitness scores in females compared to males. Using parameters of body fat analysis, body mass, and muscle mass/fat mass ratio would encourage people to initiate an active life early in their lives, thus, preventing the occurrence of sarcopenic obesity.

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