Association of Neck Circumference and Sarcopenic Obesity in a Cohort of Chinese Community-Based Individuals

Aims: Neck circumference (NC) is a simple and reliable anthropometric measurement for estimating obesity. Sarcopenic obesity is a distinct condition of sarcopenia in the context of obesity, with the cumulative health risks of both phenotypes. This study was aimed to explore the association between NC and sarcopenic obesity in a Shanghai community population. Methods: The study included 1542 participants (622 men and 920 women) with mean age of 58.1 ± 7.06 years who underwent complete examinations at baseline in 2013-2014 and received a re-examination in 2015-2016. An automatic bioelectric impedance analyser (BIA) was used to measure body compositions. Relative skeletal muscle index was calculated using the BIA equation from Janssen et al. The abdominal fat distribution, including visceral fat area (VFA), was assessed by magnetic resonance imaging. Elevated NC was defined as NC ≥ 38.5 cm in men and NC ≥ 34.5 cm in women. The definition of sarcopenic obesity combined low muscle mass (skeletal muscle mass index of 1 SD below the sex-specific mean value) with obesity which defined according to overall adiposity or fat distribution as body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2, fat% ≥ 25% in men and 30% in women, or VFA ≥ 80cm2, respectively. Results: Subjects with elevated NC had a higher incidence of sarcopenic obesity in both men and women regardless of adiposity status assessed by BMI, fat%, or VFA (all P < 0.001). During the follow up, higher cumulative incidence of sarcopenic obesity was found in those with elevated NC (all P < 0.001). For each 1 cm increase in NC, multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios of sarcopenic obesity in which adiposity status assessed by high BMI were 1.40 (1.11-1.76) in men and 1.32 (1.13-1.56) in women; besides, the association assessed by high fat% or high VFA remained in both men and women. Conclusion: NC was closely associated with the incidence of sarcopenic obesity, which suggested that it could be helpful to screening sarcopenic obesity in a community-based population. Disclosure Y.Xu: None. T.Hu: None. Y.Shen: None. Y.Wang: None. X.Ma: None. Y.Bao: None.