Risk of subsequent gastrointestinal disease assessed by skeletal muscle strength and mass in a prospective cohort study

Lintao Dan; Pei Qin; Siyuan Xie; Yuhao Sun; Tian Fu; Xixian Ruan; Wenming Shi; Jie Chen; Jianting Cai; Xue Li

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.109341

Risk of subsequent gastrointestinal disease assessed by skeletal muscle strength and mass in a prospective cohort study

iScience. 2024 Mar 5;27(4):109341. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109341. eCollection 2024 Apr 19.

Authors

Lintao Dan¹, Pei Qin², Siyuan Xie³, Yuhao Sun¹, Tian Fu⁴, Xixian Ruan⁴, Wenming Shi⁵, Jie Chen^{1

3}, Jianting Cai³, Xue Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Big Data in Health Science, School of Public Health and The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
² Shenzhen Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
³ Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Gastroenterology, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
⁵ School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Abstract

Skeletal muscle may mutually interact with gastrointestinal disease through metabolic homeostasis and nutritional status and therefore may be a marker for early risk detection. We conducted a prospective cohort analysis including 393,606 participants (mean age 56.0 years, 53.9% female) from the UK Biobank. The exposures were grip strength and skeletal muscle mass (SMM). The primary outcomes were 24 incident gastrointestinal diseases. During a mean follow-up of 12.1 years, we found that one sex-specific SD increase in grip strength and SMM were associated with reduced risk of 16 and 19 gastrointestinal diseases, respectively. For grip strength, the HRs ranged from 0.94 (for ulcerative colitis) to 0.80 (for liver cancers). For SMM, the HRs ranged from 0.92 (for colorectal cancer) to 0.51 (for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). Our finding suggested that grip strength and SMM might be significant indicators for gastrointestinal diseases risk screen.

Keywords: Gastroenterology; Public health; Risk stratification.