Prevalence of sarcopenia: the impact of different diagnostic cut-off limits

In the definition of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP), different cut-off limits are proposed for appendicular lean mass, muscle strength and gait speed. Therefore we aimed to examine the variation in prevalence of sarcopenia obtained with these cut-off limits.

Subjects aged 65 years and older were recruited in an outpatient clinic in Belgium and screened for sarcopenia using the EWGSOP definition. Appendicular lean mass was measured by Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry, muscle strength by a hydraulic handgrip dynamometer and gait speed was measured on a 4-meter distance. Two different cut-off points proposed by the EWGSOP were examined for each variable and 8 diagnostic methods were thereby established.

400 subjects were recruited for this study. Prevalence of sarcopenia varied from 9.25% to 18% depending on the cut-offs applied. When stratified by sex, it seems that the variation in prevalence of sarcopenia was mainly attributable to women. This prevalence ranged from 6.58% to 20.2% for women and only from 13.4% to 14.7% for men.

Prevalence of sarcopenia varies widely depending on the EWGSOP cut-off points applied for women. This may limit clinical researches and development of therapeutic strategies in the field of sarcopenia.