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Comparison of the Diagnostic Value of SARC-F and Its Three Modified Versions for Screening Sarcopenia in Chinese Community-Dwelling Older Adults

  • Original Research
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The journal of nutrition, health & aging

Abstract

Objectives

Sarcopenia refers to age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass. SARC-F is a screening tool for sarcopenia with high specificity and relatively good overall diagnostic accuracy but with low sensitivity. This study evaluated the diagnostic utility of SARC-F and its three modified versions (SARC-CalF, SARC-F+AC, and SARC-CalF+AC) for screening sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults.

Design

Diagnostic accuracy study.

Settings and Participants

We screened sarcopenia of older adults (age ≥ 60 years) in three communities in 2020. The participants’ information and anthropometric measurements were collected, respectively.

Methods

The updated consensuses of AWGS2019 and the EWGSOP2 were applied as the reference standards. we performed sensitivity/specificity analyses and estimated the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of the four scales.

Results

The prevalence of sarcopenia was 26.4% and 12.5% based on the AWGS2019 and EWGSOP2 criteria, respectively. The sensitivities/specificities of SARC-F, SARC-CalF, SARC-F+AC, and SARC-CalF+AC were 12.26%/95.59%, 47.17%/91.53%, 82.08%/68.47%, and 75.47%/83.73%, respectively, using the AWGS2019 criteria. Further, the corresponding AUCs of SARC-F, SARC-CalF, SARC-F+AC, and SARC-CalF+AC were 0.650 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.601–0.697), 0.811 (95% CI: 0.769–0.848), 0.801 (95% CI: 0.759–0.839), and 0.848 (95% CI: 0.809–0.881), respectively. Using the EWGSOP2 criteria, the sensitivities/specificities of SARC-F, SARC-CalF, SARC-F+AC, and SARC-CalF+AC were 20.00%/95.44%, 56.00%/86.61%, 70.00%/81.20%, and 80.00%/74.93%, respectively. The AUCs of SARC-F, SARC-CalF, SARC-F+AC, and SARC-CalF+AC were 0.706 (95% CI: 0.659–0.750), 0.799 (95% CI: 0.756–0.837), 0.815 (95% CI: 0.774–0.852), and 0.834 (95% CI: 0.794–0.869), respectively.

Conclusions

The modified versions of SARC-F+AC and SARC-CalF+AC, which have superior sensitivity, can be used to screen sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults. SARC-CalF+AC had the highest overall diagnostic accuracy for screening sarcopenia among community-dwelling older adults.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Danone Dietary Nutrition Research and Education Fund [grant number DIC2019-10]. We would like to thank the participants and community workers for their support.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Junliang Zhou and Tingting Li.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, China

    Junliang Zhou, Tingting Li, X. Chen & Hong Jia

  2. Department of Nutrition, Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, China

    M. Wang

  3. Department of Rehabilitation, Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, China

    W. Jiang

Authors
  1. Junliang Zhou
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  2. Tingting Li
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  3. X. Chen
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  6. Hong Jia
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Contributions

Author contributions: JH contributed to the design of the study and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the final version of the manuscript. ZJL and LTT contributed to the interpretation of the data and drafted the manuscript. ZJL, LTT, CXY, JW, and WM performed the study. And all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hong Jia.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest: None of the authors has a confict of interest to declare.

Ethical standards: The study was conducted ethically in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. All subjects have given written informed consent. The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University (approval no.: KY2019176).

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Zhou, J., Li, T., Chen, X. et al. Comparison of the Diagnostic Value of SARC-F and Its Three Modified Versions for Screening Sarcopenia in Chinese Community-Dwelling Older Adults. J Nutr Health Aging 26, 77–83 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-021-1718-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-021-1718-z

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