We read, with great interest, the recent article by Kaga et al., in which prediabetes was reported to be associated with sarcopenia in older men but not in older women based on the cross-sectional analysis using the baseline data from the Bunkyo Health Study.1 This finding indicates that sarcopenia could have occurred prior to the onset of diabetes, particularly in older men, and highlights the need of conducting screening-oriented strategy for sarcopenia prevention in the aging population. However, in this article, several issues are worthy of discussion.
First, as indicated in the Methods part, the authors performed separate analyses by sex for the association of glycaemic status with sarcopenia. They found that after multivariate adjustment, prediabetes was associated with higher odds for sarcopenia compared with normoglycaemia (odds ratio [OR] 2.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03 to 4.20) in men but not in women (OR 1.04, 95% CI: 0.61 to 1.76). However, when combining older men and women together, results from the fixed meta-analytical approach showed that prediabetes might not be significantly associated with higher odds of sarcopenia (OR 1.33, 95% CI: 0.87 to 2.03, P for heterogeneity = 0.12). Moreover, the interaction effect between men and women was not significant (P = 0.12), based on the test for interaction,2 suggesting that sex may not mediate the association of prediabetes with sarcopenia. A possible explanation for this inconsistent outcome between men and women, as shown by Kaga et al.,1 might be attributable to the difference in the sample sizes of male and female participants and hence the statistical power. However, as already noted by the authors in their Methods part that there existed considerable differences in body composition, muscle strength, or physical function in the aging population, it is therefore appropriate and reasonable to perform sex-stratified analyses. As a result, future studies with larger sample sizes are required to confirm the present findings regarding the association of prediabetes with sarcopenia between sex in the aging population.
Second, employing oral glucose tolerance test and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) to ascertain prediabetes diagnostic criteria by the Japan Diabetes Society is a strength of this article. However, there exists controversies regarding the cut-off points of fasting blood glucose and HbA1c for defining prediabetes. For example, the American Diabetes Association recommends a fasting blood glucose at 5.6–6.9 mmol/L to diagnose prediabetes, while the World Health Organization suggests 6.1–6.9 mmol/L; the American Diabetes Association recommends a HbA1c at 5.7–6.4% (39–47 mmol/mol) to diagnose prediabetes, while the International Expert Committee advocates 6.0–6.4% (42–47 mmol/mol).3 It is therefore of interest to know whether the study outcomes a
{"title":"Comment on ‘Prediabetes is an independent risk factor for sarcopenia in older men, but not in older women: the Bunkyo Health Study’ by Kaga et al.","authors":"Shanhu Qiu, Xue Cai, Zilin Sun, Tongzhi Wu","doi":"10.1002/jcsm.13293","DOIUrl":"10.1002/jcsm.13293","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We read, with great interest, the recent article by Kaga <i>et al</i>., in which prediabetes was reported to be associated with sarcopenia in older men but not in older women based on the cross-sectional analysis using the baseline data from the Bunkyo Health Study.<span><sup>1</sup></span> This finding indicates that sarcopenia could have occurred prior to the onset of diabetes, particularly in older men, and highlights the need of conducting screening-oriented strategy for sarcopenia prevention in the aging population. However, in this article, several issues are worthy of discussion.</p><p>First, as indicated in the Methods part, the authors performed separate analyses by sex for the association of glycaemic status with sarcopenia. They found that after multivariate adjustment, prediabetes was associated with higher odds for sarcopenia compared with normoglycaemia (odds ratio [OR] 2.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03 to 4.20) in men but not in women (OR 1.04, 95% CI: 0.61 to 1.76). However, when combining older men and women together, results from the fixed meta-analytical approach showed that prediabetes might not be significantly associated with higher odds of sarcopenia (OR 1.33, 95% CI: 0.87 to 2.03, <i>P</i> for heterogeneity = 0.12). Moreover, the interaction effect between men and women was not significant (<i>P</i> = 0.12), based on the test for interaction,<span><sup>2</sup></span> suggesting that sex may not mediate the association of prediabetes with sarcopenia. A possible explanation for this inconsistent outcome between men and women, as shown by Kaga <i>et al</i>.,<span><sup>1</sup></span> might be attributable to the difference in the sample sizes of male and female participants and hence the statistical power. However, as already noted by the authors in their Methods part that there existed considerable differences in body composition, muscle strength, or physical function in the aging population, it is therefore appropriate and reasonable to perform sex-stratified analyses. As a result, future studies with larger sample sizes are required to confirm the present findings regarding the association of prediabetes with sarcopenia between sex in the aging population.</p><p>Second, employing oral glucose tolerance test and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) to ascertain prediabetes diagnostic criteria by the Japan Diabetes Society is a strength of this article. However, there exists controversies regarding the cut-off points of fasting blood glucose and HbA1c for defining prediabetes. For example, the American Diabetes Association recommends a fasting blood glucose at 5.6–6.9 mmol/L to diagnose prediabetes, while the World Health Organization suggests 6.1–6.9 mmol/L; the American Diabetes Association recommends a HbA1c at 5.7–6.4% (39–47 mmol/mol) to diagnose prediabetes, while the International Expert Committee advocates 6.0–6.4% (42–47 mmol/mol).<span><sup>3</sup></span> It is therefore of interest to know whether the study outcomes a","PeriodicalId":186,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle","volume":"14 5","pages":"2452-2453"},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2023-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jcsm.13293","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9771413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}