Reliability and Clinical Validity of the SARC-Global Questionnaire for Sarcopenia and Sarcopenic Obesity in Spanish...

Sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity (SO) are related to an increased risk of adverse outcomes. The objective of this study was to assess the internal and clinical validation of the Spanish version of the SARC-Global questionnaire, a sarcopenia risk screening tool, and its ability to detect sarcopenia, severe sarcopenia, and SO in adults aged ≥ 60 years.

A total of 167 participants (73.22 ± 6.70 years, 71.26% women) completed the study. First, reliability was assessed by the inter-rater and the test-retest analyses. For the clinical validation, the risk of sarcopenia (SARC-Global) was compared to sarcopenia diagnosed using three operational definitions. The SARC-Global's ability to detect severe sarcopenia (SS) and sarcopenic obesity assessed with body mass index (SO-BMI) and body fat percentage (SO-BFP), considering nutritional status and physical activity level, was also analyzed.

The Spanish SARC-Global questionnaire showed a substantial to excellent inter-rater and test-retest reliability. Regarding the clinical validation, sensitivity/specificity values to detect cases of sarcopenia were 85.71%/64.38% (EWGSOP2), 83.33%/65.81% (FNIH), and 54.55%/63.46% (AWGS-2019). Diagnostic accuracy ranged from 67.07% (FNIH) to 62.87% (AWGS-2019). The analysis also indicated that SARC-Global cutoff of 13.5 was the optimal score for severe sarcopenia (100.00% sensitivity and 80.49% specificity), SO-BMI (100% sensitivity and 80.49% specificity), and SO-PBF (80.00% sensitivity and 80.86% specificity).

The Spanish version of the SARC-Global questionnaire is a reliable and clinically valid instrument for identifying people at the risk of sarcopenia, severe sarcopenia, and sarcopenic obesity in Spanish older adults.