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The role of ultrasonographically measured rectus femoris muscle on falls in community-dwelling older adults: a single-center study

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Key summary points

AbstractSection Aim

Sarcopenia is a progressive and generalized muscle disorder and a risk factor for falls. Muscle ultrasonography is a novel, easy-to-apply and reliable tool for determining sarcopenia. We aimed to investigate the relationship between ultrasonographically measured muscle masses and a history of falls in older adults.

AbstractSection Findings

Ultrasonographically measured muscle mass of the rectus femoris muscle and cross-sectional area is significantly associated with the history of falls in community-dwelling older adults.

AbstractSection Message

Decreased muscle mass determined by muscle ultrasonography may be a potentially modifiable risk factor for falls in older adults.

Abstract

Background

There are many risk factors for falls and sarcopenia has emerged as an important risk factor. Measuring muscle mass is a useful method to determine sarcopenia. Our aim was to determine the difference in muscle mass between older adults with (fallers) and without history of falls (non-fallers) using ultrasonography (US).

Methods

Two hundred ten geriatric patients were enrolled. Fall was defined as an event declared by the person who fell. Sarcopenia was defined by EWGSOP2 criteria. Muscle mass was assessed by muscle ultrasonography of five different muscles.

Results

The mean age of the whole study group was 74.1 ± 6.3 years and 58.1% (n = 122) of the total study population was female. Among the participants, 69 patients (31.3%) had a fall history. The sarcopenia ratio was 23.2% in the fallers, and it was 13.7% in the non-fallers, the difference was statistically insignificant (p > 0.05), the measurement of rectus femoris muscle (RF) thickness and cross-sectional area (RFCSA) were significantly smaller among the fallers than non-fallers (p < 0.05). The ROC analysis revealed that RF and RFCSA could determine the history of falls [for RF area under curve (AUC): 0.606, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.526–0.686, p = 0.010 and for RFCSA AUC: 0.621, 95% CI 0.538–0.704, p = 0.004]. RFCSA was statistically relevant with a history of falls, regardless of age, sex, multimorbidity, incontinence, nutritional status, and frailty status.

Conclusion

Decreased RF and RFCSA determined by muscle US is a potentially modifiable risk factor for falls in older adults. Muscle US may be used for determining the risk of falls in older adults.

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Data availability

The data supporting this study’s findings are not openly available and are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Author notes

  1. Merve Güner and İlker Boğa have contributed equally to this article and both authors are the first author.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Geriatric Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, 06230, Altındağ, Ankara, Türkiye

    Merve Güner, İlker Boğa, Arzu Okyar Baş, Serdar Ceylan, Süheyla Çöteli, Zeynep Kahyaoğlu, Cafer Balcı, Burcu Balam Doğu, Mustafa Cankurtaran & Meltem Halil

  2. Department of Physiotherapy, Hacettepe University Faculty of Health Sciences, Ankara, Türkiye

    Semra Topuz

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  1. Merve Güner
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Contributions

MG, İB, ST, and MH contributed to conception/design of the research; MG, İB, AOB, SC, ZK contributed to acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of the data; MG, İB drafted the manuscript; AOB, CB, BBD, MC critically revised the manuscript; and all authors agree to be fully accountable for ensuring the integrity and accuracy of the work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Merve Güner.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Our university’s local ethics committee authorized the project. The Helsinki Declaration was followed by the study protocol.

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After receiving verbal and written information about the study, all participants or their legal guardians provided informed consent.

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Güner, M., Boğa, İ., Topuz, S. et al. The role of ultrasonographically measured rectus femoris muscle on falls in community-dwelling older adults: a single-center study. Eur Geriatr Med 14, 1065–1073 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-023-00823-9

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