Kwon YJ, et al. – The relationship between alcohol–drinking patterns and sarcopenia in Korean postmenopausal women were scrutinized in this study. It was concluded that high–risk alcohol drinking was related to a higher risk of sarcopenia in postmenopausal Korean women.

Methods

• Data from 2,373 postmenopausal women were examined from the 2008 to 2011 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
• They characterized sarcopenia as two standard deviations below the sex–specific means of the appendicular skeletal muscle/weight (percentage) values of a young reference group.
• Participants were categorized into three groups according to alcohol–drinking patterns, as evaluated by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test questionnaire.
• The odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for sarcopenia were ascertained utilizing multiple logistic regression analyses.

Results

• In this study, they found total 8.2% of Korean postmenopausal women met criteria for sarcopenia.
• The prevalence of sarcopenia increased from low–risk to high–risk alcohol–drinking groups as follows: 7.6, 11.0, and 22.7%, respectively.
• Compared with the low–risk group, the odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for the high–risk group was 4.29 (1.87–9.82) after adjusting for age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, household income, education level, daily calorie consumption, current smoking and regular exercise, and household food security status.