Research

Hormonal

The protective association between dietary diversity and low muscle mass is significantly stronger in women than in men.

Women may derive greater muscle-protective benefits from dietary diversity than men, possibly due to hormonal differences. Women should prioritize diverse protein and anti-inflammatory food intake to counteract age-related muscle loss.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Subgroup analyses were conducted to evaluate potential interaction effects, revealing stronger inverse associations observed in women (P < 0.001).
Tongxu Zhang et al. · BMC Geriatrics · 2025

Why this rating

Statistically significant interaction (P < 0.001) in a large sample, but cross-sectional nature limits causal claims about sex-specific mechanisms.

Source

Associations of protein-enriched dietary diversity, anti-inflammatory dietary diversity, and low muscle mass among older Chinese adults: a nationwide cross-sectional analysis

Tongxu Zhang et al. · BMC Geriatrics · 2025

DOI 10.1186/s12877-025-06596-z

cross_sectional · n=12986
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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