Sarcopenia is more prevalent in men than in women after hip fracture: a cross-sectional study of 591 inpatients.

Our aim was to compare the prevalence of sarcopenia in men and women with hip fracture. We studied 591 of 630 hip fracture inpatients consecutively admitted to our Rehabilitation ward. All the patients underwent a Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scan 18.4 ± 8.7 (mean ± SD) days after hip fracture occurrence. Sarcopenia was defined when appendicular lean mass divided by height squared was less than two standard deviations below the mean of the young reference group obtained from population based studies. Using normative data from the New Mexico Elder Health Study, 340 of the 531 women (64.0%), and 57 of the 60 men (95.0%) had sarcopenia. Using normative data from the survey performed in Rochester, Minnesota, 116 of the 531 women (21.8%), and 52 of the 60 men (86.7%) had sarcopenia. After adjustment for age, time between fracture occurrence and DXA scan, number of medications in use, and number of concomitant diseases, men had a significantly higher prevalence of sarcopenia than women (p < 0.001). The adjusted odds ratio was either 10.54 (95% CI from 3.25 to 34.16) or 23.64 (from 10.8 to 51.6) depending on the reference population adopted. Our data shows a high proportion of sarcopenic subjects after hip-fracture. Sarcopenia was significantly more prevalent in men than in women. Relevancy of prevention and treatment of muscle loss is emphasized, particularly in men.