A new article published in Injury evaluated the association between sarcopenia and fracture incidence in the middle-aged and elderly people.

This was a systematic review and meta-analysis that searched the Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library. Statistical heterogeneity scores were assessed with the standard Cochrans Q test and the I2 statistic.

The present study included 5 cohort studies involving 27 990 participants. The crude and adjusted effect sizes between sarcopenia and fracture were extracted from 2 and 5 studies, respectively. The results revealed that sarcopenia was significantly associated with fracture incidence without adjusting covariates. Even after adjusting for potential confounders, sarcopenia demonstrated significant positive association with fracture. In addition, the sensitivity analysis confirmed the stability of the results. Moreover, there were significant associations between sarcopenia and fracture in subgroups of male, older adults; Americans; and hip fracture patients.

The findings suggested that sarcopenia was significantly associated with fracture in middle aged and elderly people.

Source: Injury. 2020 Feb 18. pii: S0020-1383(20)30146-7. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2020.02.072.