Sarcopenic Knee Osteoarthritis: A Risk Factor for Recurrent Falls

Abstract Background: Sarcopenia and knee osteoarthritis (OA) are major risk factors for falls in older adults. The coexistence of these two conditions may exacerbate the risk of falls through the sarcopenia-OA interaction. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that older adults with coexisting sarcopenia and knee OA, defined as “sarcopenic OA,” displayed an increased risk of falls.Methods: Patients in an orthopedics clinic (n = 298, age: 60–90 years, 78.9% women) were divided into 4 groups according to the presence of sarcopenia and radiographic knee OA: isolated sarcopenia, isolated knee OA, sarcopenic knee OA, and control (i.e., non-sarcopenia with non-OA) groups. We used questionnaires to assess fall experience in the prior 12 months. We performed binary and ordinal logistic regression analyses to evaluate the relationship between the 4 groups and falls experience.Results: Of 298 participants, 27 (9.1%) had sarcopenic knee OA. Patients with sarcopenic knee OA had 4.70 times (95% confidence interval: 1.08, 20.5) higher odds of recurrent falls (≥ 2 falls) than those with control after adjustment for age, sex, and body mass index.Conclusions: Patients with sarcopenic knee OA displayed higher frailty. This study provides novel interactive relationship between sarcopenia and knee OA in the context of recurrent falls experience.Trial registration: Not applicable.