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Osteosarcopenia is more than sarcopenia and osteopenia alone

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Abstract

Background

Sarcopenia and osteopenia/osteoporosis show a high prevalence in old age and incur a high risk for falls, fractures, and further functional decline. Physical performance and bone metabolism in patients suffering from the so-called osteosarcopenia—the combination of sarcopenia and osteopenia—are currently still unknown.

Aims

This study investigates physical performance and bone metabolism in osteosarcopenic, prefrail, community-dwelling older adults.

Methods

68 prefrail adults between 65 and 94 years were assigned to four groups according to mean DXA results: osteosarcopenic [low T-score and low appendicular lean mass (aLM)], sarcopenic (low aLM), osteopenic (low T-score), and controls. Multiple linear regression analysis, adjusted for age, gender, physical activity, and 25-OH-vitamin D3 serum level, was used to identify the influence of being osteosarcopenic, sarcopenic, or osteopenic on physical performance (hand grip, chair rise test, sit-to-stand power, gait speed, SPPB) and serum markers for increased bone turnover [osteocalcin, β-crosslaps and procollagen type 1 amino-terminal propeptide (P1NP)].

Results

Only osteosarcopenic participants showed significantly reduced hand grip strength, increased chair rising time, and STS power time as well as significantly increased bone turnover markers.

Discussion

Due to low physical performance and high bone turnover, older adults with osteosarcopenia have to be regarded as the most at-risk population for fractures and further functional decline.

Conclusions

Up-to-date osteoporosis and post-fracture management of older persons should aim at both, bone and muscle.

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Acknowledgement

The authors want to thank the volunteer participants and John Hoppe for providing language help.

The members of the FiAT intervention group: Astrid Zech, Department of Exercise Physiology, Institute of Sports Science, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany; Ellen Freiberger, Institute for Biomedicine of Aging, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany; Klaus Pfeifer, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institute of Sport Science and Sport, Erlangen, Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik IV, Schwerpunkt Akutgeriatrie, Klinikum der Universität München, Ziemssenstrasse 1, 80336, Munich, Germany

    Michael Drey & Ralf Schmidmaier

  2. Institute for Biomedicine of Aging, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany

    Cornel C. Sieber

  3. Laboratory Medicine and Transfusion Medicine, General Hospital Nuremberg, Institute of Clinical Chemistry, Paracelsus Medical University, Nuremberg, Germany

    Thomas Bertsch

  4. Department of Geriatric Medicine, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany

    Jürgen M. Bauer

Authors
  1. Michael Drey
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  2. Cornel C. Sieber
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  3. Thomas Bertsch
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  4. Jürgen M. Bauer
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  5. Ralf Schmidmaier
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The FiAT intervention group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Drey.

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Funding

Michael Drey and Jürgen M. Bauer were supported by a Forschungskolleg Geriatrie Grant from the Robert Bosch Foundation, Stuttgart, Germany. The reagents for bone marker measurements were kindly provided from Roche Diagnostics.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Statement of human and animal rights

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

The members of the FiAT intervention group are mentioned in the Acknowledgement.

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Drey, M., Sieber, C.C., Bertsch, T. et al. Osteosarcopenia is more than sarcopenia and osteopenia alone. Aging Clin Exp Res 28, 895–899 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0494-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0494-1

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