New paper led by Jirapitcha Boonpor
Published: 23 November 2023
In people with type 2 diabetes, sarcopenia is associated with the incidence of cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study from the UK Biobank
In people with type 2 diabetes, sarcopenia is associated with the incidence of cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study from the UK Biobank
Jirapitcha Boonpor, Jill P. Pell, Frederick K. Ho, Carlos Celis-Morales, Stuart R. Gray
Summary
The age-related loss of muscle strength and mass, sarcopenia, has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of CVD. People with type 2 diabetes have an elevated risk of CVD and the process of sarcopenia occurs at a faster rate. Our working hypothesis is that sarcopenia might contribute to the increase in CVD risk in people with type 2 diabetes. In this paper, using the UK biobank data, we used Cox proportional hazard models and propensity score matching to investigate in people with type 2 diabetes whether having sarcopenia was associated with a higher incidence of CVD. Over a median follow-up of 10.7 years having sarcopenia was associated with a higher risk of incident CVD, stroke, heart failure and myocardial infarction with these events occurring 12-15 years earlier in those with sarcopenia. We found similar results when investigating individual sarcopenia components (grip strength, muscle mass and gait speed) with the risk of developing CVD. Screening for sarcopenia may be useful in people with type 2 diabetes to identify those at higher risk of CVD, however, as the current data is an observational study we cannot confirm causality and so future research needs to test this assertion.
First published: 23 November 2023