Evidence Hub

Association between gut microbiota and locomotive syndrome risk in healthy Japanese adults: a cross-sectional study

Minami Nishiyama, Sho Nakamura, Taizo Matsuki, H. Narimatsu

npj Aging, 2024

568 participants

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examined the association between gut microbiota composition and locomotive syndrome in 568 healthy Japanese adults (36.8% male, median age 58.5 years) using data from the Kanagawa “ME-BYO” Prospective Cohort Study. Locomotive syndrome was assessed using the 5-question Geriatric Locomotive Function Scale (GLFS-5). Linear discriminant analysis effect size showed an enrichment of Actinobacteria and depletion of Firmicutes in GLFS-5 positive individuals. Classification tree analysis identified three terminal nodes as GLFS-5 positive, with one node involving Holdemania. Participants aged ≥70.0 and <78.0 years who did not consume probiotic foods and had ≥0.04% relative abundance of Holdemania were classified as at risk for locomotive syndrome. Our findings suggest a potential association between gut microbiota, particularly higher Holdemania abundance, and locomotive syndrome in older adults. This study provides insights into the complex relationship between gut microbiome composition and musculoskeletal health in aging populations. However, the cross-sectional design limits causal inference.

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cross-sectional, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause. Reported size: 568 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free