Understanding how nutrition and lifestyle impacts on the risks for sarcopenia and frailty

Keeping our population mobile and in good health is crucial for our aging populations. Sarcopenia is the presence of low skeletal muscle mass as well as low grip strength or function. Sarcopenia, which is caused by the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, is a recognised condition in its own right but is also a risk factor for disability, frailty, osteoporosis and fragility fractures. Population preventative measures are important but the causative and protective factors for sarcopenia and its risk factors are not well understood. It is crucial therefore for population prevention strategies to understand causative and protective factors and to identify new intervention possibilities to alleviate this condition.

This PhD will investigate data from the UK Biobank, a study of 500,000 men and women aged 40-69 years in the UK, using epidemiological techniques. The project will explore which nutrition and lifestyle factors relate to skeletal muscle mass and grip strength in this large population, and how more precise measures of body composition (measured using DXA) and circulating vitamin D and cytokines are involved. You will be working with a team of supervisors at the University of East Anglia and University of Plymouth: Dr Ailsa Welch (nutritional epidemiology), Dr Jane Skinner (statistician), Prof Andy Jones (epidemiology) and Prof Mary Hickson (nutrition and sarcopenia). This PhD will provide a great opportunity to develop your skills in nutrition epidemiology with the largest population study of the general population in the UK.