Against the backdrop of global population aging, sarcopenia-the age-related loss of muscle mass, strength, and function-has emerged as a critical public health issue affecting the health, mobility, and quality of life of older adults. Current research predominantly focuses on biomarkers and genetic factors, while the roles of social and environmental determinants and their mechanisms remain underexplored. The exposome framework offers a powerful approach to systematically assess the impact of multiple environmental and social exposures on health, yet it has not been systematically applied to sarcopenia etiology. Therefore, this study aims to leverage the large-scale, multidimensional data from the UK Biobank to construct a social and environmental exposome and investigate its association with the development and progression of sarcopenia, along with underlying biological mechanisms.
Key research questions include: (1) Which social and environmental exposures (e.g., socioeconomic status, occupation, living environment, lifestyle) are associated with sarcopenia risk? (2) Do these exposures influence muscle health through specific biological pathways (e.g., inflammation, metabolism, hormonal levels)? (3) Can an integrated exposure-biomarker model be developed to predict sarcopenia risk? The objectives are to identify key exposure factors, elucidate mechanistic pathways, and build a risk prediction tool to inform early intervention strategies.
