Abstract
Background: Sarcopenic obesity (SO) is an increasing phenomenon and has been linked to several negative health consequences. The aim of this umbrella review is the assessment of effectiveness and certainty of evidence of nutrition and exercise interventions in persons with SO.
Method: We searched for meta-analyses of RCTs in PubMed, EMBASE and CENTRAL that had been conducted in the last five years, focusing on studies on the treatment and prevention of SO. The primary endpoints were parameters for SO, such as body fat in %, skeletal muscle mass index (SMMI), gait speed, leg strength and grip strength. The methodological quality was evaluated using AMSTAR and the certainty of evidence was assessed using GRADE.
Results: Four systematic reviews with between 30 to 225 participants were included in the umbrella review. These examined four exercise interventions, two nutrition interventions and four interventions that combined nutrition and exercise. Resistance training was the most frequently studied intervention and was found to improve gait speed by 0.14 m/s to 0.17 m/s and lower leg strength by 9.97 kg. Resistance, aerobic, mixed exercise and hypocaloric diet combined with protein supplementation is not significantly effective on selected outcomes for persons with SO compared to no intervention. The low number of primary studies included in the reviews resulted in moderate to very low certainty of evidence.
Conclusion: Despite the lack in certainty of evidence, resistance training may be a suitable intervention for persons with SO, in particular for improving muscle function. Nevertheless, further research is necessary to strengthen the evidence.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 250-263 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Current Obesity Reports |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Sept 2023 |
Funding
Open access funding provided by Medical University of Graz. The SO-NUTS project is funded by JPI HDHL, the funding agencies supporting this work are: the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), French national Research Agency (ANR), Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research represented by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (BMBWF represented by FFG), Spanish State Research Agency (AEI: PCI2020-120683–2), Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports Department of Research and Development (MSMT). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERA-NET Cofund action N° 727565.