Саркопения поражает 11% взрослых в сельских районах Андхра-Прадеш уже до старости

VISAKHAPATNAM: Sarcopenia — the progressive loss of muscle mass and strength — affects more than one in 10 adults in rural parts of the Telugu states, making it one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in the population, a new study has found. The finding is notable because the study population was relatively young. The nearly 5,300 adults included in the analysis had a mean age of 35.5 years, with almost half aged between 18 and 29. Sarcopenia was detected in 11.3% of participants, substantially higher than the 4.6% prevalence of diabetes. The finding suggests that sarcopenia, commonly associated with ageing and frailty, is already present in a sizeable proportion of adults well before old age in this rural population. Published in ‘PLOS Global Public Health’, the study analysed data from the Andhra Pradesh Children and Parents Study. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Johns Hopkins University, and Indian institutions examined 13 common chronic conditions. Anaemia was the most prevalent condition, affecting 24.7% of participants, followed by hypertension at 19.9%, sarcopenia at 11.3%, and diabetes at 4.6%. The study primarily examined multimorbidity, defined as individuals with two or more chronic conditions. Overall, 14.2% of the participants had multimorbidity. The burden rose sharply with age, from 2.8% among adults aged between 18 and 29, to 49.5% among those aged 60 and above. However, multimorbidity was also substantial among younger and middle-aged adults, affecting 14.9% of those aged 30 to 44 and 26.1% of those aged between 45 and 59. The findings point to a broader chronic disease challenge in rural communities, with multiple conditions affecting not only older adults but also younger and middle-aged people. Anaemia, hypertension, sarcopenia, and diabetes were among the conditions that frequently co-occurred. However, the statistical analysis identified anaemia and hypertension as the main multimorbidity pattern. The researchers did not find that all four conditions constituted a single statistically defined cluster. The researchers also examined four behavioural risk factors — tobacco consumption, physical inactivity, daily alcohol consumption, and poor sleep. After adjusting for age, sex, education, and household socioeconomic status, tobacco use, physical inactivity, and poor sleep were associated with higher odds of multimorbidity. Physically inactive participants had 66% higher odds of multimorbidity, while those reporting poor sleep had 86% higher odds. Tobacco users had 23% higher odds. Physical inactivity showed an especially strong association with the anaemia-hypertension pattern — the odds of having both conditions were more than twice as high among physically inactive participants. However, the researchers cautioned that the study was cross-sectional, meaning it can identify associations but cannot establish cause and effect. Therefore, the findings do not show that physical inactivity, tobacco use or poor sleep directly cause multimorbidity. The researchers said that promoting physical activity, reducing tobacco consumption, and addressing poor sleep could potentially help reduce the burden of multiple chronic conditions. They called for longitudinal studies to determine whether these behavioural factors directly contribute to multimorbidity and to guide targeted interventions.