A posteriori dietary patterns in 71-year-old Swedish men and the prevalence of sarcopenia 16 years later

The role of diet in sarcopenia is unclear, and results from studies using dietary patterns (DP) are inconsistent. We assessed how adherences to a posteriori DP are associated with the prevalence of sarcopenia and its components 16 years later. Four DP were defined in the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men at baseline (n 1133, average age 71 years). Among 257 men with information at follow-up, 19 % (n 50) had sarcopenia according to the European Working Group on sarcopenia in Older People 2 definition. Adherence to DP2 (mainly characterised by high intake of vegetables, green salad, fruit, poultry, rice and pasta) was non-linearly associated with sarcopenia; adjusted OR and 95 % CI for medium and high v. low adherence: 0·41 (0·17, 0·98) and 0·40 (0·17, 0·94). The OR per standard deviation (sd) higher adherence to DP2 was 0·70 (0·48, 1·03). Adjusted OR (95 % CI) for 1 sd higher adherence to DP1 (mainly characterised by high consumption of milk and cereals), DP3 (mainly characterised by high consumption of bread, cheese, marmalade, jam and sugar) and DP4 (mainly characterised by high consumption of potatoes, meat and egg and low consumption of fermented milk) were 1·04 (0·74, 1·46), 1·19 (0·71, 2·00) and 1·08 (0·77, 1·53), respectively. There were no clear associations between adherence to the DP and muscle strength, muscle mass, physical performance or sarcopenia using EWGSOP1 (sarcopenia n 54). Our results indicate that diet may be a potentially modifiable risk factor for sarcopenia in old Swedish men.