ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1621199
The Impact of Elevated Dietary Inflammatory Potential on Sarcopenic Obesity: Evidence from Two Observational Studies
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Clinical Nutrition, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
- 2Department of Endocrinology, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
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Background and objective: Chronic low-grade inflammation plays a critical role in the onset and progression of both sarcopenia and obesity. Diet, as a well-known modifiable factor of low-grade inflammation, significantly impacts adverse health conditions including obesity and sarcopenia. This study aims to explore the association between dietary inflammatory potential and sSarcopenic oObesity (SO). Methods: A total of 4,470 subjects from two National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles (2015-2016 and 2017-2018) and 276 subjects enrolled from Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province between January 2024 and February 2025 were enrolled in the present study. Logistic regression was used to investigate the association between dDietary iInflammatory iIndex (DII) and SO. Moreover, the mediating effect of inflammation-related indicators C-reactive proteinalbumin-lymphocyte (CALLY) and neutrophil-percentage -to-albumin ratio (NPAR) were evaluated to investigate the association between DII and SO in the NHANES cohort. Results: In the NHANES cohort, logistic regression demonstrated the positive association between the DII score and SO (adjust odd ratio (OR) continuous= 1.19, 95% CI= 1.08, 1.32, P =0.012; adjust OR tertile3vs1= 1.93, 95% CI=1.28, 2.92, P for trend =0.015). In the China population cohort, a positive association also existed between DII and SO (adjust OR continuous= 1.59, 95% CI= 1.30, 1.94, P <0.001; adjust OR tertile3vs1= 6.10, 95% CI=2.72, 13.68, P for trend <0.001). Using the NHANES data, the mediation analysis indicated that C-reactive protein-albumin-lymphocyte (CALLY) mediated 39.49% of the association between DII and SO, while NPAR mediated 7.35%.An elevated DII score is positively associated with the risk of SO in adults. The association appeared to be partially mediated through inflammatory/nutritional pathways, suggesting that the DII score may serve as a valuable indicator for identification of individuals at risk for SO.
Keywords: Dietary inflammatory index, CRP-albumin-lymphocyte index, Neutrophil-percentage-toalbumin ratio, sarcopenic obesity, NHANES
Received: 30 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Luo, Jin and Mao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shengcheng Mao, Department of Endocrinology, Tongde Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
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