Development and validation of a rapid sarcopenia screening questionnaire: The Otassha study

To develop a rapid and easy screening tool to detect sarcopenia.

In total, 683 community-dwelling older adults who participated in our cohort study, the "Otassha Study," in 2019, completely responded to a questionnaire, and were diagnosed with sarcopenia were included. Participants responded to a nine-item questionnaire, including candidate items for a new sarcopenia screening tool named rapid sarcopenia screening, based on items of the Strength, Assistance with walking, Rising from a chair, Climbing stairs, and Falls (SARC-F) questionnaire. To select appropriate items for the new screeening tool, multiple logistic regression analyses were performed, with sarcopenia as the dependent variable and questionnaire responses as independent variables. The area under the curve using 10 000 bootstraps was used to assess the rapid sarcopenia screening diagnostic ability for detecting sarcopenia.

Responses to question nos 2 (how much can you squeeze a wet towel?), 5 (how much muscle strength do you think you have compared with that of people of your age and sex?), 7 (how fast do you usually walk?), and 9 (age-related item) were related to sarcopenia in multiple logistic regression analysis. The area under the curve of the total score of rapid sarcopenia screening was 0.82, 0.80, and 0.81 for men, women, and overall, respectively. At a cut-off value of 14/15, the sensitivity and specificity for sarcopenia detection were 0.73 and 0.73, respectively.

The newly developed sarcopenia screening tool has a better diagnostic ability for sarcopenia than the SARC-F. Rapid sarcopenia screening does not require physical function measurements, making it a useful and accessible tool among older adults to detect sarcopenia. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2023; 23: 945-950.