Calf Circumference as a Novel Tool for Risk of Disability of the Elderly Population

Abstract

Disability became increasingly common with age, and crude rates of disability were rising around the globe. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between calf circumference (CC) and disability in the U.S. elderly population. From the 1999–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a total of 4,245 participants with an age range of 60–84 years were included. Disability was defined as the total number of difficulties within the following 5 major domains of disability, such as activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADL, general physical activities, lower extremity mobility, and leisure and social activities. The association between CC and disability was investigated through the regression model adjusted for multiple covariates. According to the fully adjusted model regarding disability, the β coefficients for each quartile of increasing CC were −0.041 for quartile 2 (P = 0.096), −0.060 for quartile 3 (P = 0.027), and −0.073 for quartile 4 (P = 0.026) respectively, compared with lowest quartile. There was a negative association between CC and disability among the elderly population. Calf circumference may be a novel risk assessment for disability of elderly people.

Relationship of Fat Mass Index and Fat Free Mass Index With Body Mass Index and Association With Function, Cognition and Sarcopenia in Pre-Frail Older Adults

“…Calf circumference is positively correlated with muscle mass, associated with nutritional status and disability, and recommended by the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia as a screening tool for sarcopenia (31,69,70). Interestingly, our study found prevalence of small calf circumference was significantly lower in higher FMI and FM/FMI tertiles where the prevalence of sarcopenic obesity was also high.…”

Examining the association between vestibular function and lower extremity circumference in an aged population

“…Additionally, other research showed that CC might be positively connected to lower frailty index scores and higher functional performance . From the 1999–2006 NHANES, which contained 4245 older adults, CC might be an innovative tool to assess the disability risk in the older adult population . Furthermore, the result from a longitudinal survey on aging in Taiwan, which enrolled 2521 adults aged ≥65 years, showed that CC had better ability to predict emerging care need in the older Taiwanese population .…”

Calf Circumference as a Screening Tool for Cognitive Frailty in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: The Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study (KFACS)

“…Calf circumference has been used as a simple proxy marker for skeletal muscle mass, sarcopenia, and nutritional status in clinical and community settings [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Furthermore, it has been shown to be effective in predicting subsequent disability, an emerging need for care, and mortality in older adults [ 43 , 44 , 45 ]. On analyzing a representative sample of older US adults (age range: 60–84 years) according to four anthropometric parameters (waist, arm, thigh, and calf circumferences), only calf circumference showed a significant (inverse) association with disability [ 44 ].…”

“…Furthermore, it has been shown to be effective in predicting subsequent disability, an emerging need for care, and mortality in older adults [ 43 , 44 , 45 ]. On analyzing a representative sample of older US adults (age range: 60–84 years) according to four anthropometric parameters (waist, arm, thigh, and calf circumferences), only calf circumference showed a significant (inverse) association with disability [ 44 ]. In the Taiwan Longitudinal Survey on Aging Study [ 45 ], calf circumference was a better predictor of an emerging need for care in older adults compared to BMI.…”