Quantifying the Enhancement of Sarcopenic Skeletal Muscle Preservation Through a Hybrid Exercise Program: Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract BackgroundSarcopenia is characterized by the loss of skeletal muscle mass and muscle function with increasing age. The skeletal muscle mass of older people who endure sarcopenia may be improved via the practice of strength training and tai chi. However, it remains unclear if the hybridization of strength exercise training and traditional Chinese exercise will have a better effect. ObjectiveWe designed a strength training and tai chi exercise hybrid program to improve sarcopenia in older people. Moreover, explainable artificial intelligence was used to predict postintervention sarcopenic status and quantify the feature contribution. MethodsTo assess the influence of sarcopenia in the older people group, 93 participated as experimental participants in a 24-week randomized controlled trial and were randomized into 3 intervention groups, namely the tai chi exercise and strength training hybrid group (TCSG; n=33), the strength training group (STG; n=30), and the control group (n=30). Abdominal computed tomography was used to evaluate the skeletal muscle mass at the third lumbar (L3) vertebra. Analysis of demographic characteristics of participants at baseline used 1-way ANOVA and χ2 ResultsA significant interaction effect was found in skeletal muscle density at the L3 vertebra, skeletal muscle area at the L3 vertebra (L3 SMA), grip strength, muscle fat infiltration, and relative skeletal muscle mass index (all PPF1 ConclusionsThe skeletal muscle area of older adults with sarcopenia may be improved by a hybrid exercise program composed of strength training and tai chi. In addition, we identified that the LightGBM classification model had the best performance to predict the reversion of sarcopenia.