Diet quality and osteosarcopenic obesity in community-dwelling adults 50 years and older.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the association between diet quality and osteosarcopenic obesity (OSO), low bone and muscle mass with concurrent high fat mass, in middle-aged and older adults.

STUDY DESIGN: Data were from a cross-sectional study of 2579 men and 3550 women aged 50 years and older who completed the Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey from 2008 to 2010.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Data were collected using 24-h dietary recall, and diet quality was determined by the Diet Quality Index-International (DQI-I), on which higher scores denote better quality. Body composition was evaluated by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. The association between dietary quality and the number of body composition abnormalities (including OSO) was analyzed by multinomial logistic regression, adjusting for covariates.

RESULTS: In women, after controlling for covariates, higher scores on the DQI-I were associated with a significantly lower number of phenotypes associated with adverse body composition. Those in the highest tertile group of DQI-I were less likely to have OSO compared with those in the lowest tertile (odds ratio=0.54, 95% confidence interval: 0.32-0.92). In men, DQI-I scores were not associated with the number of body composition abnormalities.

CONCLUSIONS: Middle-aged and older women who eat a healthier diet, as determined by a high DQI-I score, are less likely to have multiple body composition abnormalities.