Association between energy intake and skeletal muscle mass according to dietary patterns derived by cluster analysis: data from the 2008 ~ 2010 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Jang, Bo Young; Bu, So Young

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study investigated major dietary patterns among healthy Korean adults using cluster analysis and analyzed the relationship between energy intake and skeletal muscle mass.
METHODS
This study was conducted using the data from the 2008 ~ 2010 Korea National Health and Nutrition Survey. The data of 7,922 subjects aged 30 years and over, without any missing values, were included in the final analysis. K-means cluster analyses were conducted to identify the dietary patterns of the study subjects, which were based on the energy intake from 21 food groups using a 24-h recall method. The changes in energy intake with each dietary pattern, according to quartiles of skeletal muscle mass, were investigated.
RESULTS
Three dietary patterns were identified for both men and women: "˜Flour, Animal fat', "˜White rice' and "˜Healthy mixed diet'. The association between energy intake and skeletal muscle mass for both men and women was significant only in the "˜White rice' dietary pattern. In the "˜White rice' pattern, the energy intake increased up to > 300 kcal from the lowest to the highest quartile of skeletal muscle mass after adjustment for covariates. Within the "˜White rice' pattern, skeletal muscle mass was linearly associated with energy intake in all the age groups in men.
CONCLUSION
Energy intake was significantly associated with changes in skeletal muscle mass only in the "˜White rice' pattern. Furthermore, the degree of association between the change in skeletal muscle mass and energy intake differed according to gender. These results indicate that the association between skeletal muscle mass and energy intake may be specific to Korean people who are accustomed to a traditional Korean diet.