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Abstract Background Adiposity can influence the estimation of muscle mass using calf circumference (CC) and underestimate the frequency of low CC. An adjustment for CC using body mass index (BMI) was proposed to reduce this effect. We aimed to compare the low CC frequency in hospitalized patients when considering raw and BMI‐adjusted values and explore data by sex, age, and race (white and non‐white). Methods Secondary analysis from two cohort studies conducted with adult hospitalized patients using BMI and CC data collected in the first 72 h after hospital admission. We classified low CC by two approaches: (1) raw CC; (2) BMI‐adjusted CC for patients with BMI ≥ 25. Cutoff values for low CC were ≤34 cm (men) and ≤33 cm (women). Results Among 1272 patients (54.1 ± 15.3 years old; 51.7% women; 82.1% White race), low CC frequency was 30.6% and low BMI‐adjusted CC was 68.9%. For all elevated BMI categories, the low CC frequency was higher when considering BMI‐adjusted values ( P 60% of patients with BMI ≥ 25.
Sousa et al. (Tue,) studied this question.