Sarcopenia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Is there a relationship? A systematic review

Table 1 Characteristics and outcomes of the included studies

Ref.	Year	Design of the study	Sample size	Mean age (± SD)	Gender	Method of diagnosis of sarcopenia	Independent variable	Method of diagnosis of NAFLD	Frequency of NAFLD	Results of the studies
Hong et al[15]	2014	Cross-sectional	452	49.5 ± 10.3	285 women (63.1%)	DXA	SMI/weight (quartiles)	CT (LAI)	Prevalence	OR of having NAFLD by quartiles of SMI after adjusting for potential confounding factors: OR = 5.16 (95%CI: 1.63-16.33)
										P = 0.041 after adjustment for age, sex, smoking status, phisical activity, HOMA-IR, hsCRP and 25[OH]D levels
Lee et al[16]	2015	Cross-sectional	15132	49.7 ± 16.5	9515 women (62.9%)	DXA	SMI: < 32.2% for men and < 25.5% for women	HSI, CNS and LFS BARD and FIB-4 for advanced fibrosis	Prevalence: 22%-29%	Sarcopenic vs non-sarcopenic patients according to the NAFLD assessment method: OR = 1.18-1.22 (95%CI: 1.02-1.39)
										P < 0.001 when adjusted for age, sex, regular exercise, HOMA-IR, smoking and HT
Moon et al[20]	2013	Cross-sectional	9565	47 ± 10.3	5293 men (55.3%)	BIA multi frequencies	SVR (quartiles)	Surrogate marker: FLI ≥ 60	Prevalence: 19.32%	OR for NAFLD among the quartiles of SVR using multiple logistic regression analysis: OR = 0.037 (95%CI: 0.029-0.049)
										P < 0.001 when adjusted for age, sex, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, DM, HTN, hsCRP

BIA: Bioelectric impedance analysis; CNS: Comprehensive NAFLD score; CT: Computed tomography; DM: Diabetes mellitus; DXA: Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry; FLI: Fatty liver index; HOMA-IR: Homeostasis model of insulin resistance; hsCRP: High sensitivity C-reactive protein; HIS: Hepatic steatosis index; HTN: Systemic hypertension; LAI: Liver attenuation index; LFS: Liver fat score; NAFLD: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; 25[OH]D: 25-hydroxyvitamin D; OR: Odds ratio; SMI: Skeletal muscle mass index; SVR: Skeletal muscle mass to visceral fat area ratio.