Table 3.

Associations of baseline flexibility with incident low muscle mass, low muscle strength and sarcopenia after 4 years

New‐onset outcomes	Flexibility, per SD		Low flexibility		Middle flexibility		High flexibility
	OR (95% CI)	P	OR (95% CI)	P	OR (95% CI)	P	OR (95% CI)	P
Low muscle mass a	0.83 (0.66, 1.05)	0.128	1.00 (reference)	/	0.75 (0.43, 1.31)	0.308	0.59 (0.33, 1.06)	0.076
Low muscle strength b	0.75 (0.65, 0.85)	<0.001	1.00 (reference)	/	0.88 (0.63, 1.22)	0.447	0.53 (0.38, 0.74)	<0.001
Sarcopenia c	0.66 (0.53, 0.81)	<0.001	1.00 (reference)	/	0.61 (0.38, 0.99)	0.046	0.36 (0.21, 0.61)	<0.001

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio; SD, standard deviation.

Note: Adjusted for age groups, sex, fat mass index categories, education levels, physical activity, drinking status, smoking status, diabetes, hypertension, hypertriglyceridaemia and low high‐density lipoprotein.

^a Participants (n = 1030) without low muscle mass at baseline and having information on the development of low muscle mass were included in the analysis.

^b Participants (n = 1088) without low muscle strength at baseline and having information on the development of low muscle strength were included in the analysis.

^c Participants (n = 1233) without sarcopenia at baseline and having information on the development of sarcopenia were included in the analysis.