Purpose: Sarcopenia has been known to be associated with older people. Since anemia was also prevalent in older adults, our study aimed to analyze the association between anemia and sarcopenia among community-dwelling older individuals.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using data collected during a free annual health exam for older adults in Taipei between March 2014 and July 2015. Participants were diagnosed with sarcopenia, as defined by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 consensus. Anemia was diagnosed when serum hemoglobin concentrations were less than 13 g/dL in men or 12 g/dL in women. Binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between anemia and sarcopenia, after adjustment for potential confounding variables including demographic characteristics (sex and age), lifestyle factors (status of smoking and alcohol drinking), physical activity, health conditions (body mass index [BMI] and comorbidities) and the results of screening tests for dementia and depression. Subgroup analyses, stratified by sex, were also performed.
Results: Among 1,222 older participants, 60.7% were women. Among patients with sarcopenia, 25.2% had anemia, whereas among those without sarcopenia, only 8.9% had anemia (p<0.001). Binary logistic regression analyses, adjusted for other covariates, demonstrated that participants with anemia had an increased risk of sarcopenia compared with those without anemia (odds ratio [OR] 1.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.30-3.05). In the subgroup analysis, a higher OR was observed for the anemia group compared with the non-anemia group in women (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.18-3.73) but not men.
Conclusion: The study results showed a significant association between anemia and sarcopenia in individuals older than 65 years, especially women. These insights have implications for interventions to prevent sarcopenia development.