الفهرس 
Body Composition in ElderlyOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The aging process is characterized by changes in body
composition. Elderly individuals experience decrease in
muscle mass and increase in fat mass or fat redistribution
with increase in visceral fat mass.
The changes in body composition may lead to
functional decline and decrease in elderly physical
performance.
The degree and speed of these changes in muscle
mass, fat mass and physical performance is different in
elderly population and determined by many social and
environmental factors.
Elderly who experience decline in physical
performance have higher rates of dependency,
institutionalization, and mortality.
Identification of factors that leads to functional
decline and disability is important to set strategies and
interventions that counteract their effect and improve
physical outcome.
In elderly population, the changes in body
composition, especially changes in muscle and fat mass, and
their relation to physical performance are a point of interest
in different researches. Previous epidemiological studies
showed inconsistent results examining muscle, and fat
relation with physical performance in elderly.Several studies have reported an association between
low muscle mass and limited physical performance.
The aim of this work was to study the relationship
between body composition (skeletal muscle mass, fat mass,
BMI and WHR) and physical performance in elderly, and to
evaluate the risk factors for poor physical performance in
this population.
The study sample included two hundred sixty seven
participants aged sixty years and above. They included
eighty seven males and one hundred eighty females. Study
participants were recruited from geriatric clubs and geriatric
homes in Cairo governorate, Egypt.
After obtaining informed consent, every study
participant underwent assessment of physical performance
using hand grip strength and walking speed, assessment of
self-reported function using ADL and IADL, determination
of body composition using BIA; and measuring
anthropometric measures BMI and WHR.
Our study revealed significant relation between low
skeletal muscle index and low physical performance
measured by hand grip strength, walking speed, ADL and
IADL. Regarding fat mass percentage, there was
significantly inverse relation with physical performance
measures except ADL.
Combination of both increased fat percentage and low
skeletal muscle mass index showed the worst physical
performance measures.While low BMI was significantly related to low hand
grip only and waist hip ratio showed no significant relation
with physical performance.
Body composition assessment using BIA was more
conclusive than BMI and WHR.
Logistic regression analysis revealed that low skeletal
muscle index, high fat mass and low BMI are independent
predictors of low hand grip strength. Also increasing age,
institutionalization, smoking and low nutritional state have
the same effect.
Low skeletal muscle mass and high fat mass were also
independent risk factors for low gait speed. Other risk factors
for low gait speed were found such as institutionalization,
number of chronic diseases, smoking and low nutritional
state.
As regard self-reported function, low skeletal muscle
index and low nutritional state were both independent
predictors of dependence on ADL. While increased age,
institutionalization and high fat mass were independent
predictors of dependence in IADL.