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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Geriatric Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1488068
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Background: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a condition linked to several adverse health consequences, including metabolic disturbances that impact skeletal muscles. Sarcopenia, characterized by skeletal muscle loss, is commonly observed in individuals with MASLD.Our study aims to identify modifiable lifestyle factors associated with Sarcopenia among patients with MASLD. Methods: This study is cross-sectional and carried out at three clinics in Nablus. One hundred sixty-two adults diagnosed with MASLD were recruited for the study. The patients were interviewed and instructed to provide necessary information including sociodemographic factors, medical and surgical histories, lifestyle information, MASLD-related data, and nutritional and functional status. Sarcopenia was defined using the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) criteria, which includes the weight skeletal muscle index (WSMI) with the cut-off score (male: 35.7% and female: 30.7%). Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS v.21. The chi-square or independent sample t-test was utilized to identify the factors linked to Sarcopenia in the study sample.Results: Our data found 44% of MASLD patients had Sarcopenia, which was significantly associated with female gender (p<0.0001), older age (p<0.0001), presence of chronic diseases (p<0.035), and medication use (p<0.05). Regarding nutritional factors, Sarcopenia had a significant association with obesity, higher body fat percentage, high waist-to-hip ratio, low mid-upper arm circumference, and calf circumference (p<0.001). Sarcopenic individuals are evidenced by reduced hand grip strength.Lifestyle characteristics, a history of smoking and the type of smoking were found to be positively associated with Sarcopenia (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Sarcopenia is prevalent in the study population and is linked to modifiable risk factors that can be managed to reduce its progression. Additional studies using different study designs, such as longitudinal design, are recommended to identify Sarcopenia determinants. Intervention studies are also required to improve MASLD patients' nutritional and functional status.
Keywords: MASLD, Sarcopenia, wSMI, handgrip strength, muscle mass
Received: 11 Sep 2024; Accepted: 28 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Amer, Abdoh, Salous, Alsoud, Abubaker, Salhab and Badrasawi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Johnny Amer, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
Qusay Abdoh, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
Zaina Salous, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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