Abstract
Objective
Cholesterol-lowering medications, especially statins, are widely prescribed for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. The association between those medications and sarcopenia has garnered attention and remains a topic of contention. Our aim is to investigate whether cholesterol-lowering medications are a risk factor for sarcopenia.
Methods
We utilized data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database, extracting data from the 2011–2014 survey cycles. By constructed univariate and multivariate regression models, we elucidated the relationship between the X variable and the Y variable. By conducted predictive models by the ROC curve to assess the average predictive value based on AUC.
Results
The ratio of usage of cholesterol-lowering medication showed a significant difference between the sarcopenia group and non-sarcopenia group (77 (25.0%) vs. 396 (12.0%), p < 0.001), but when further analyzing the subgroups of obese and non-obese individuals, this difference disappeared. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis BMI demonstrated a significant and independent impact on sarcopenia (OR = 1.13, 95%CI 1.01–1.27, p = 0.036). The ROC curve analysis of the model incorporating age, grip strength, and BMI as predictors yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.7433.
Conclusion
There is no direct correlation between cholesterol-lowering medications and sarcopenia. Instead, obesity emerges as an independent risk factor for sarcopenia. Additionally, the combination of BMI, age, and grip strength demonstrates good predictive value for identifying the risk of sarcopenia in clinical patients.