Evaluation of the SARC-F Questionnaire as a Diagnostic Tool for Sarcopenia in Geriatric Age-group in India

With medical science advancing in leaps and bounds, average lifespan is now trending upward, and we are now facing an increasing prevalence of diseases of the elderly, sarcopenia being one of them. Unfortunately, sarcopenia, especially in India, remains to be frequently overlooked, underdiagnosed, and largely understudied. One of the greatest hindrances to the diagnosis of sarcopenia is high costs and limited availability of diagnostic modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. Accessible, feasible, and affordable means to diagnose sarcopenia is thus the need of the hour.

We performed a cross-sectional observational study among 300 patients aged 65 years or above (including both outpatient and inpatient departments) at MM Institute of Medical Sciences, Mullana between June 2021 and June 2022. Patients were evaluated as per the European Working Group for Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) algorithm using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and the results were compared with results of the SARC-F questionnaire. Statistical analyses were then carried out using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Statistics version 26.

Out of 300 patients, 56 (18.7%) were sarcopenic. Sarcopenia showed no significant association with sex (p = 0.74). SARC-F showed a sensitivity of 73.2% and a specificity of 37.3% with a positive predictive value of 86.51% and a negative predictive value of 32.84% in diagnosing sarcopenia. SARC-F showed good internal reliability with a Cronbach's α > 0.7.

The SARC-F questionnaire can be used as a bedside screening tool for sarcopenia, especially in a developing country like India where diagnostic resources are frequently scarce.