AGING AND BODY COMPOSITION; THE SARCOPENIC OBESITY IN SPAIN

The increase in life expectancy occurred during the last decades has resulted in a growth of the elderly population, being estimated that a third of the Spanish population will be elderly (>65 years) in the year 2050. Human aging involves many changes, such as a variation in body composition. Different factors work together leading to an increase in fat mass, decreased muscle mass and reduced bone mass among seniors. These characteristic changes among elderly people may lead to suffer several diseases such as obesity, sarcopenia and osteoporosis and may result in decreased quality of life, increased dependence and increased risk of mortality in this population. In the late 90's, "sarcopenic obesity" was a concept that emerged in order to define those people who simultaneously have an excess of body fat and a significant loss of muscle mass. Recently, for the first time in Spain (the elderly EXERNET multi-centre study), it has been shown that the prevalence of sarcopenic obesity in a representative sample of non-institutionalized seniors reaches values of 15%.