Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. May 15, 2019; 10(5): 311-323
Published online May 15, 2019. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v10.i5.311
Association between sarcopenic obesity and higher risk of type 2 diabetes in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Dima Khadra, Leila Itani, Hana Tannir, Dima Kreidieh, Dana El Masri, Marwan El Ghoch
Dima Khadra, Leila Itani, Hana Tannir, Dima Kreidieh, Dana El Masri, Marwan El Ghoch, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Beirut Arab University, Beirut 11072809, Lebanon
Author contributions: El Ghoch M designed the work; Khadra D and El Ghoch M performed research, Itani L analyzed data, El Ghoch M, Itani L, Khadra D Tannir H, Kreidieh D, and El Masri D interpreted the data; El Ghoch M revised it critically for important intellectual content; Khadra D, Itani L, Tannir H, Kreidieh D, El Masri D and El Ghoch M drafted the work; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marwan El Ghoch, MD, Academic Research, Chairman, Full Professor, Professor, Head of Department, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Beirut Arab University, PO Box 11-5020 Riad El Solh, Beirut 11072809, Lebanon. m.ghoch@bau.edu.lb
Telephone: +961-1-300110
Received: February 28, 2019
Peer-review started: March 4, 2019
First decision: April 13, 2019
Revised: April 17, 2019
Accepted: May 1, 2019
Article in press: May 1, 2019
Published online: May 15, 2019
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

The coexistence of sarcopenia and obesity has been termed as sarcopenic obesity (SO). Several studies have been conducted in order to determine any potential association between SO phenotype and type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the available data are still contradictory and require further clarification.

Research motivation

To our knowledge no systematic review on the primary outcome related to the association between SO and T2D has been conducted yet to provide an unbiased interpretation of the evidence published to date.

Research objectives

We set out to systematically review the published literature with the aim of determining the prevalence of sarcopenia among adults with overweight and obesity and to investigate whether SO was associated with higher risk of T2D.

Research methods

The review conformed to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses guidelines, and data were collated by means of narrative synthesis and meta-analysis.

Research results

The prevalence of SO in adult with overweight and obesity is 43% in females and 42% in males, and the presence of this condition increases the risk of T2D by 38% with respect to those without SO.

Research conclusions

A high prevalence of sarcopenia has been found among adults with overweight and obesity regardless of their gender, and this condition seems to be associated with a higher risk of T2D. The clinical implication of our findings is to raise awareness of the high prevalence of this phenotype in the overweight/obese population, and the importance of screening for SO in individuals affected by excess weight, since this condition seems to be strongly associated with T2D. However, our results need to be interpreted with caution with regard to the association between SO and the prevalence of T2D, since the cross-sectional design of the studies included in our systematic review indicates only associations between the two conditions and that does not provide information regard the causal relationships.

Research perspectives

The current research indicates the need to design longitudinal studies to clarify the real effect of SO on the onset and progression of T2D. In other words, the available studies lack in evidence to determine if SO may lead to the onset or deterioration of T2D, since very few studies have longitudinally investigated the “real” effects of SO on health.