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Low muscle mass in men associated with poor physical performance, mobility limitations
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Recently published results showed a strong association with poor physical performance, fatigue and subsequent risk of injurious falls and mobility limitations when low muscle mass was measured by deuterated creatine dilution compared with lean mass assessed by DXA.
Peggy M. Cawthon, PhD, MPH, and colleagues assessed muscle mass by deuterated (D3) creatine dilution among 1,382 men who completed the short physical performance battery, usual walking speed and DXA lean mass. Researchers also collected self-reported mobility limitations, recurrent falls and serious injurious falls in the subsequent year. Multivariate linear models were used to calculate means for short physical performance battery and gait speed across quartiles of D3-creatine muscle mass/body mass and incident mobility limitations or falls were calculated by multivariate logistic models.
Results showed slower gait speed, lower short physical performance battery, greater likelihood of incident serious injurious falls, prevalent mobility limitations and incident mobility limitations among men in the lowest quartile of D3-creatine muscle mass/body mass compared with men in the highest quartile. Researchers noted weaker associations between DXA lean mass and outcomes.
“Previous research has underestimated the role of muscle mass in determining physical performance and risk of mobility limitations and injurious falls,” Cawthon told Healio.com/Orthopedics. “Our new data suggest that measuring muscle mass with the D3-creatine dilution method may help us identify older adults who are at risk of physical decline. This presents an opportunity to intervene and prevent these late-life outcomes.” – by Casey Tingle
Disclosures: This study received funding from the NIH, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Skin Diseases; and support from the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH Roadmap for Medical Research and GlaxoSmithKline.
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