SARCOPENIC OBESITY PREVALENCE IN CHILDREN WITH CONSTITUTIONAL-EXOGENOUS OBESITY

Abstract

Currently there are no unified diagnostic criteria for the sarcopenic obesity, the prevalence of which is growing along with an increase in the number of obese people worldwide. The bioimpedance analysis of body composition is widely used to assess the body composition. In 2021, M.Sc. Isabel Gätjens (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel) et al. proposed to use the ratio of fat mass to lean body mass as a new criterion for the sarcopenic obesity in children aged 5 to 17 years old. The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence of sarcopenic obesity in children with constitutional-exogenous obesity (CEO) according to the proposed criterion. Materials and methods: 557 children were included in a single-center retrospective cohort study, of which 266 (47%) boys and 291 (53%) girls, aged 7 to 17 years old (age 14.3 [12.7; 15.5] years) with CEO who underwent inpatient examination at the Endocrinology Research Centre of the Ministry of Healthcare of Russia (Moscow, Russia) in Feb. 2018 - Feb. 2022. All of the children were assessed for the body composition using the bioimpedance analysis. The value of the ratio of fat mass to lean mass >90th percentile for the corresponding gender and age (according to M.Sc. Isabel Gätjens et al..) is defined as a criterion for sarcopenic obesity in children. Results: the sarcopenic obesity was determined in 88.68% of children with CEO without statistically significant difference between boys and girls (86.06% and 91.06%, respectively, p=0.54). Conclusion: an extremely high prevalence of sarcopenic obesity in children and adolescents with CEO was revealed. Further studies needed to assess the contribution of sarcopenic obesity to the development of metabolic disorders and obesity-associated diseases in childhood.