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Associations Between Fat Mass, Lean Mass, and Knee Osteoarthritis: The Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V)

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Abstract

As little is known about the associations between body composition (fat mass and lean mass) and knee OA, especially regarding body parts (upper body and lower limbs), the purpose of this study was to identify the association between the former and the prevalence of the latter according to body parts. This study was designed as a cross-sectional analysis, with 4194 people (1801 men and 2393 women) from the fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V, 2010–2011) included. Body composition (fat mass and lean mass) was measured by using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and knee OA was diagnosed based on the level of Kellgren–Lawrence grade. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, upper body composition was not significantly correlated with radiographic knee OA (P > 0.05), while participants with higher lean mass of lower limbs were less likely to have radiographic knee OA (aOR 0.57; 95 % CI 0.32–0.99). In stratified analysis, participants with higher lean mass of lower limbs were less likely to have a radiographic knee OA in 40–54 kg (P for trend = 0.05) and 55–70 kg stratum (P for trend = 0.03), while this trend slightly attenuated in 70–85 kg stratum (P for trend = 0.15). In conclusion, the increase in lean mass of lower limbs is inversely related to the prevalence of knee OA while upper body composition is not. This study suggests that the lean mass of lower limbs might be associated with reduction in the risk of knee OA.

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Acknowledgments

In this study, we used survey data from the Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea. We thank a number of investigators for conducting the survey and collecting the data. Go-Un Jung and Kyuwoong Kim received a scholarship from the BK21-plus education program provided by the National Research Foundation of Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Seong Rae Kim, Go-Un Jung, Kyuwoong Kim & Sang Min Park

  2. Department of Industrial Engineering, Seoul National University College of Engineering, Seoul, South Korea

    Seong Rae Kim

  3. Center for Health Promotion and Cancer Prevention, Dongnam Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Busan, South Korea

    Kyung-Hyun Choi

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, FL, USA

    Doosup Shin

  5. Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28 Yunkeon-dong, Jongro-gu, Seoul, 110-744, South Korea

    Sang Min Park

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  1. Seong Rae Kim
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Correspondence to Sang Min Park.

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Seong Rae Kim, Kyung-Hyun Choi, Go-Un Jung, Doosup Shin, Kyuwoong Kim, and Sang Min Park declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All participants gave informed consent before being included in this study. This study did not need ethical approval of our Institutional Review Board, since the survey data examined were publicly available.

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Kim, S.R., Choi, KH., Jung, GU. et al. Associations Between Fat Mass, Lean Mass, and Knee Osteoarthritis: The Fifth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V). Calcif Tissue Int 99, 598–607 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00223-016-0190-y

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