Total Distance Walked After Hip Surgery Identifies Older Patients With Sarcopenia

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Orthopedic Surgery
• Geriatric Medicine

Background:

• Sarcopenia is a significant concern in older adults post-hip fracture surgery.
• Early identification of sarcopenia risk is crucial for timely intervention.
• Functional mobility, like walking distance, may serve as a practical indicator.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish optimal cut-off points for total walking distance on discharge day.
• To identify older adults at high risk of sarcopenia following hip fracture surgery.
• To validate these cut-off points for clinical utility.

Main Methods:

• Prospective observational study of 135 patients (>65 years) post-hip fracture surgery.
• Logistic regression and Youden index used to determine walking distance thresholds.
• 10-fold cross-validation for internal validation of predictive models.

Main Results:

• Sarcopenia was suspected in 33% of patients, with 16.5% confirmed.
• Walking distance significantly decreased with increasing sarcopenia severity (p < 0.001).
• Optimal thresholds: ≤8.8m for women (PPV 90%) and ≤11.3m for men (PPV 62.5%) identified sarcopenia.

Conclusions:

• Discharge walking distance is a simple, practical, and effective marker for sarcopenia risk in older adults post-hip fracture.
• Established thresholds can aid in identifying at-risk individuals for targeted interventions.
• Alternative models were developed for patients with missing walking distance data.