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Ability of SARC-F to Find Probable Sarcopenia Cases in Older Adults

  • Original Research
  • Published:
The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Background/Objective

In 2018 EWGSOP2 has suggested low muscle strength as the primary parameter of sarcopenia. The consensus has recommended SARC-F questionnaire as a screening test to find cases with low muscle strength which has been designated as probable sarcopenia. We aimed to study the ability of SARC-F to find probable sarcopenia cases in older patients.

Design

Retrospective, cross-sectional.

Setting

Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine

Participants

A total of 456 older adults (71.1% female, mean age: 74.6±6.6 years)

Measurements

We diagnosed probable sarcopenia by EWGSOP 2 criteria, i.e., presence of low handgrip strength (HGS). SARC-F questionnaire was performed by all participants. We used a receiver operating characteristics curve to obtain SARC-F cut-off values to detect probable sarcopenia and calculated the area under the curve and 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results

We included 456 participants (71.1% female; mean age: 74.6 ± 6.6 years). Probable sarcopenia was present in 58 (12.7%). SARC-F cut-off ≥ 2 presented the best balance between sensitivity and specificity (sensitivity: 64.9% vs specificity: 67.9%) to detect probable sarcopenia [the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) = 0.710; 95% Cl: 0.660–0.752, p< 0.001]. SARC-F with a cutoff point ≥ 1 had sensitivity 84.2% and specificity 40.5% and SARC-F ≥ 4 had high specificity 88.2% with 40.3% sensitivity.

Conclusion

SARC-F is a good screening tool for sarcopenia in practice. Our findings suggest SARC-F ≥ 1 cut-off point to be used as the probable sarcopenia screening tool regarding its high sensitivity. Consequently, SARC-F ≥ 4 cut-off is better to be used if one prefers to exclude probable sarcopenia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, Istanbul Medical School, Istanbul University, Capa, 34390, Istanbul, Turkey

    D. Erbas Sacar, C. Kilic, M. A. Karan & Gulistan Bahat

Authors
  1. D. Erbas Sacar
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  2. C. Kilic
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  3. M. A. Karan
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  4. Gulistan Bahat
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gulistan Bahat.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest: There are no other relationships/conditions/circumstances that present a potential conflict of interest.

Ethical standards: The study was conducted according to guidelines in the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was approved from the local ethic committee (No:1707).

Additional information

Statement of Authorship: Mehmet Akif Karan: Supervision, Reviewing and Editing. Cihan Kilic: Data curation. Duygu Erbas Sacar: Writing- Original draft preparation, Writing- Reviewing and Editing. Gulistan Bahat: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Writing- Reviewing and Editing, Supervision.

Sponsor’s role: None.

This study was presented as a ‘poster presentation’ in 15th EuGMS Congress held in Kraków, Poland in 2019.

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Sacar, D.E., Kilic, C., Karan, M.A. et al. Ability of SARC-F to Find Probable Sarcopenia Cases in Older Adults. J Nutr Health Aging 25, 757–761 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-021-1617-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-021-1617-3

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