Adverse childhood experiences and sarcopenia: a prospective study embedded in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

A high ACE burden was reported by 12.7% of participants in the study sample.

• Sample included 23,476 participants aged 45-85 years from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging with 3-year follow-up.
• 49.5% female; mean age 62.1 ± 9.9 years.
• Eight ACEs were assessed using validated retrospective instruments.
• High ACE burden was defined as ≥3 ACEs.

Among participants without baseline sarcopenia, 2.8% developed incident sarcopenia over the 3-year follow-up.

• 614 out of 21,910 participants without baseline sarcopenia developed sarcopenia.
• Sarcopenia was defined using revised European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2) criteria.
• Incident sarcopenia was evaluated using multivariable logistic regression.

ACE count predicted incident sarcopenia among depressed participants but not among nondepressed participants.

• Among depressed participants: OR = 1.10 (95% CI: 1.02–1.20), P = .016.
• Among nondepressed participants: OR = 0.98 (95% CI: 0.93–1.03), P = .399.
• Depression was defined using the CESD ≥ 10 threshold.
• Models were adjusted for age, sex, and ethnicity.

Depression moderated ACE-related declines in lean muscle mass and handgrip strength.

• Changes in continuous sarcopenia components were assessed with lagged linear models.
• Models were adjusted for age, sex, and ethnicity.
• The moderating effect of depression was specific to continuous muscle mass and strength outcomes, paralleling findings for incident sarcopenia.

ACE-related worsening of chair rise performance and gait speed was mediated by depression.

• This finding emerged from post hoc mediation analyses.
• Chair rise performance and gait speed are components of physical performance assessed within sarcopenia criteria.
• Depression acted as a mediator rather than only a moderator for these specific functional outcomes.

Sociodemographic factors did not moderate the ACE-sarcopenia association.

• Moderating effects of age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic position (education, income) were explored.
• None of these sociodemographic factors significantly moderated the association between ACE count and incident sarcopenia.
• Only depression, not sociodemographic variables, emerged as a significant moderator.