The association between obesity and sarcopenia remains controversial. The present study was conducted to explore the associations among body mass index (BMI), visceral fat area (VFA), and sarcopenia in older people and analyze their potential mechanisms. This cross-sectional study included 861 community-dwelling older Chinese people from three regions of China. BMI, VFA, muscle mass, muscle strength, physical performance, body composition, and metabolic markers were measured. Muscle mass and muscle strength were positively correlated with BMI, but were negatively correlated with VFA. Simple overweight/obesity was negatively associated with sarcopenia (OR = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.03~0.18), and the OR value was lower than combined obesity (OR = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.09~0.28). Fat free mass and total body protein were positively associated with high BMI but negatively associated with high VFA. Furthermore, high VFA was adversely associated with some metabolic risk factors of sarcopenia. Combination of BMI and VFA increased diagnostic efficiency of low muscle mass and sarcopenia. In conclusion, high BMI was negatively associated with sarcopenia, while high VFA attenuated the negative association between high BMI and sarcopenia. The opposite association may partially be attributed to their different associations with body composition and metabolic risk factors of sarcopenia. Therefore, bedsides BMI, VFA and its interaction with BMI should be considered in sarcopenia prevention.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and serum intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) in Chinese childbearing women, and to estimate the optimum threshold of 25(OH)D that maximally inhibits the PTH, which is considered to be the optimal status for vitamin D sufficiency. Methods: Serum samples were selected from the biological samples’ bank of the Chinese Chronic Diseases and Nutrition Survey (CCDNS) 2015. The serum 25(OH)D concentration was determined by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and the serum PTH was determined by electronic chemiluminescence. Simple linear and partial correlation analysis, locally weighted regression smooth scatterplot (LOESS), nonlinear least squares estimation (NLS), and segmented regression (SR) were utilized to estimate the relationship of 25(OH)D and PTH, and to determine the threshold of 25(OH)D. Results: A total of 1568 serum samples of 25(OH)D concentration and PTH concentration were analyzed. A significant inverse relationship between 25(OH)D and PTH concentration was observed below 15.25 (14.22–16.28) ng/mL, and PTH decreased slowly with the increase of 25(OH)D above 16.75 (15.43–18.06) ng/mL after adjusting by age, latitude, city type, season, corrected calcium, and phosphorus. A very short plateau of PTH was found at 15.25 ng/mL and 16.75 ng/mL in terms of 25(OH)D according to LOESS, NLS, and SR. Conclusions: The serum 25(OH)D was negatively correlated with the serum PTH. The threshold of VitD sufficiency was found in the range of 14.22–18.06 ng/mL in terms of serum 25(OH)D concentration for Chinese childbearing women aged 18–44 years old.

Background: Sarcopenia associated with aging severely affects the quality of life of the elderly; diets have been shown to elicit an inflammatory response in the body, and diets that promote inflammation may lead to damage to muscles. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) has been developed to quantify the inflammatory potential of individual diets. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between the DII, sarcopenia and its components in elderly Chinese people. Methods: In this study, data were obtained from the China Nutrition Improvement Strategies and Applications for the Elderly Research Programme. An assessment of sarcopenia was carried out according to the Asian Working Group on Sarcopenia’s (AWGS2019) criteria. The DII was calculated using food intake data obtained using the FFQ method, and then the quartile method was used to categorize the subjects into four groups. Multifactor logistic regression was conducted to examine the associations between DII, sarcopenia and its components. Results: This study included 993 subjects over the age of 65, and the prevalence of sarcopenia was 20.2%. The mean DII score of the study population was 0.99 ± 0.1. After adjusting for the confounders age, gender, marital status, and educational level, the risk of sarcopenia was 1.66 times higher in group Q4 than in group Q1 (p-trend < 0.05). However, this relationship is not statistically significant when other more confounding factors are added. Nevertheless, when further analyzing the relationship between DII and sarcopenia components, it was found that after adjusting the model, a higher DII was associated with a risk of muscle strength loss (OR = 1.65, p-trend < 0.05). Conclusions: Higher DII scores increase the risk of muscle strength loss in older adults. By guiding older adults to adopt a more anti-inflammatory diet, muscle health can be improved in terms of increased muscle strength. Further cohort or interventional studies are necessary to validate our findings.

Objective: To analyze the associations between serum 25(OH)D levels and the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components, and the related genetic and non-genetic factors in non-diabetic women of childbearing age in China. Methods: Subjects were randomly selected from the 2015 Chinese Adult Chronic Disease and Nutrition Surveillance. The data of sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle factors were obtained through questionnaire survey. Anthropometry was measured by trained interviewers, and fasting blood was collected to test 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), fasting blood glucose (FBG), and other related parameters. Generalized linear mode and multivariate logistic analysis were performed to analyze the associations between serum 25(OH)D and MetS and its components, adjusting for the possible confounders. Results: Body mass index (BMI), serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), 25(OH)D, phosphorus (P), and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels were associated with the number of MetS’s components. G allele carriers of GC rs2282679 had higher diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and FBG levels compared with the TT genotypes, while higher genetic risk score (GRS) seemed to be associated with reduced HDL-C level. The odds ratio (OR) for MetS in lowest group of 25(OH)D was 1.533 (0.980–2.399) after adjusting for season, district, area type, latitude, age, BMI, PTH, P, ALT, CRE, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and hs-CRP, compared with the median group, but the association was not significant. An insufficient 25(OH)D concentration (<14.22 ng/mL) was significantly related to the risk of elevated waist circumference (WC) (OR = 1.612 (1.014–2.561)) and TG (OR = 2.210 (1.318–3.706)), and reduced HDL-C (OR = 1.639 (1.206–2.229)) after adjusting for the confounders among these women. Moreover, these relationships were not affected by vitamin D metabolism-related gene polymorphisms. Conclusion: After comprehensively considering various influencing factors, significant associations between insufficient serum 25(OH)D and MetS‘s components, including elevated WC, TG, and reduced HDL-C, were observed. However, MetS, hypertension, and hyperglycemia were not found independently associated with 25(OH)D levels.

The present study was conducted to investigate the nutrition status of dietary patterns and the association between dietary patterns and the risk of poor glycemic control in Chinese diabetics. The relevant data was collected from the China Nutrition and Health Surveillance 2015–2017 survey, which is a national cross-sectional surveillance program. A total of 2031 participants were included in the present statistical analysis. Food consumption was assessed through a validated and standard food frequency questionnaire. Dietary patterns were derived with reduced rank regression using hemoglobin A1c. Diabetes was diagnosed by medical institutions, glycemic control was defined as hemoglobin A1c less than 7%, poor glycemic control was defined as hemoglobin A1c greater than 7%. A multiple-variable-adjusted logistic regression, including age, living area, income level, educational attainment, body mass index, occupational physical activity, energy intake, current smoking status, current drinking status, diabetic medication use, insulin use, following diabetic diets, increased exercise, and glucose monitoring, was adjusted to explore the association between dietary patterns and the risk of poor glycemic control in diabetes. Two gender-specific dietary patterns have an increased risk of poor glycemic control and are characterized by a low intake of freshwater fish, poultry, and fruits. For male participants, the dietary pattern was characterized by a high intake of wheat and its products, a low intake of vegetables, corn and its products, shrimp and crab, and beans (Q4 vs. Q1, OR = 2.69, 95% CI: 1.76 to 4.10). For female participants, the dietary pattern was characterized by a low intake of snacks and nuts, and algae and mushroom (Q4 vs. Q1, OR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.48 to 3.20).