What is the impact of the European Consensus on the diagnosis and prevalence of sarcopenia among institutionalized elderly persons?

Abstract

Objective: To verify the impact of the European Consensus on the diagnosis and prevalence of sarcopenia among institutionalized elderly persons in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Method: 219 elderly persons (≥60 years) of both genders were recruited for the study. Two criteria were initially used to calculate the prevalence of sarcopenia: criterion A, based on the European Consensus, considering only elderly persons with good physical and cognitive conditions and criterion B, considering all elderly individuals, regardless of their physical and/or cognitive condition. The association between sarcopenia and gender, age and body mass index (BMI) in the two groups was investigated using the chi-square test and the Student's t-test, with a significance level of 5%. Result: the diagnosis of sarcopenia according to Criterion A revealed a prevalence of 32% (95% CI: 22.54-43.21), whereas Criterion B identified a prevalence of 63.2% (95% CI: 56; 45-69,13). Despite the difference in the prevalence of sarcopenia using the two criteria employed (p<0.001), no differences were observed in terms of the association with gender (p=0.149, p=0.212), BMI (p<0.001, p<0.001), and age (p=0.904, p=353). Conclusion: including only elderly people with good physical and cognitive abilities to calculate sarcopenia, based on the European Consensus, underestimates the prevalence of this condition among institutionalized elderly. As elderly persons with physical or cognitive limitations are extremely typical in the population of care facilities and increased diagnostic calculation for sarcopenia did not interfere with the distribution of associated factors, it is recommended that these individuals are considered in the basis of calculation for future studies of the diagnosis and prevalence of sarcopenia.

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