ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1684789
This article is part of the Research TopicBioimpedance Analysis: Lifelong Health, Disease, and Sport ApplicationsView all 19 articles
Phase Angle as a Novel Indicator of Sarcopenic Obesity in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis
Provisionally accepted
- Hangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hangzhou, China
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Background: The relationship between the phase angle (PhA) and sarcopenic obesity (SO) in patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) has not been well established. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between PhA and SO in patients undergoing HD and determine the cutoff value of PhA that can predict SO. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with 436 HD patients. PhA was measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis. SO was diagnosed according to the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia's revised definition, combined with obesity based on body fat percentage. The association between PhA and SO was assessed with multinomial logistic regression. The PhA cutoffs for SO were determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: Among participants, 119 (27.3%) had SO. After adjusting for various confounders, PhA was significantly associated with a lower SO risk [odds ratio (OR) = 0.098, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.048–0.200]. Furthermore, PhA showed a stronger association with SO than with sarcopenia or obesity alone. ROC analysis indicated excellent predictive ability for SO in both sexes (area under the curve (AUC): 0.841 for males, 0.836 for females; cutoffs: 4.49° for males, 4.18° for females). Conclusions: PhA exhibited good accuracy in detecting SO in patients undergoing HD, suggesting its utility as a reliable screening tool for early identification of at-risk individuals.
Keywords: sarcopenic obesity, Nutritional Status, phase angle, Bioimpedance spectroscopy, hemodialysis
Received: 13 Aug 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cheng, Chang, Yang, Tian, Xiong and Zhang. 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: Hongmei Zhang, hzzhanghongmei@163.com
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