Diagnostic performance of SARC-F and SARC-CalF in screening for sarcopenia in older adults in Northern Brazil

Abstract

To compare the performance of SARC-F and SARC-CalF as screening tools for sarcopenia. Cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 312 community-dwelling older people. Sarcopenia was defined as low handgrip strength (HGS) or low gait speed (GS ≤ 0.8 m/s). HGS was measured by dynamometry and GS by the 4-m walking speed test. For HGS, six criteria (C) were used to identify sarcopenia in men/women: CI: < 27 kg/16 kg; CII: < 35.5 kg/20.0 kg; CIII: grip over body mass index < 1.05/< 0.79; CIV: grip strength over total body fat < 1.66/< 0.65; CV: grip over bodyweight < 0.45/< 0.34; CVI: < 27 kg/16 kg and low skeletal muscle mass index (SMMI); CI and CVI defined according to the European Working Group on sarcopenia in older people and the rest according to the sarcopenia definition and outcomes Consortium. For sarcopenia screening, the SARC-F (≥ 4 points) and the SARC-CalF (≥ 11 points) were used. The kappa analysis revealed no agreement between the SARC-F and the various criteria for the identification of sarcopenia in men. The same lack of agreement was observed in women with some exceptions: CI = 0.161 ± 0.074, p = 0.020; GS = 0.209 ± 0.076, p = 0.003. Concerning the Cohen’s kappa between the SARC-Calf and the reference criteria of sarcopenia, the following coefficients were observed as significant for women: CI = 0.201 ± 0.069, p = 0.003; CII = 0.186 ± 0.064, p = 0.005; GS = 0.273 ± 0.068, p = 0.0001; and for men: CII = 0.139 ± 0.053, p = 0.021; GS = 0.223 ± 0.099, p = 0.011. ROC curves revealed the SARC-Calf with acceptable discrimination and reasonable sarcopenia predictive capacity considering a cutoff value of 10.5 in both men (AUC: 67.5%, p = 0.022; Se = 52.9%; Sp = 76.8%) and women (AUC: 72.4%, p < 0.001; Se = 63%; Sp = 68.5%) concerning GS. The SARC-CalF performed better than the SARC-F for screening sarcopenia in the population ≥ 60 years of age in the Amazonas, measured through walking slowness.

Clinical considerations for sarcopenia in older Colombian Afro-descendant and mestizo women

“…Using the SARC-F ≥ 4+CALF ≤ 33, Barreto et al. 33 observed that 40.0% of Brazilian women had CSS, a higher frequency than that observed in our study. Adding the grip strength of the dominant hand to the two previous assessments, we observed that 7.8% to 14.1% of the study participants had PS, depending on the cut-off point of calf circumference.…”

“…Using the SARC-F scale, we estimated that the risk of sarcopenia in the total sample of participants was 9.4%, lower than the 15.2% estimated by Gomez-Tabares et al 31 in a population of Colombian women with a mean age of 68.4 AE 8.5 years, the 19.5% in a Mexican population of both sexes older than 60 years of age, 32 and the 21.0% observed in Brazilian women. 33 In contrast, a low frequency of 6.1% has been reported in Chinese men and women with a mean age of 76.0 AE 6.3 years. 34 The heterogeneity of the populations that were included in the studies and several biological, nutritional, and cultural factors may explain this difference.…”

Sarcopenia and Pleural Mesothelioma: The Current Knowledge

“…It is already well established that a variety of tools to screen sarcopenia can be utilized in everyday clinical practice. Among them, as it has already been mentioned, are the SARC-F questionnaire and hand grip strength dynamometry, which can be easily applied in these subjects [86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93]. These might provide the opportunity to identify pre-sarcopenic and sarcopenic PM subjects and try to ameliorate their skeletal muscle mass health before the procedure, avoiding potentially adverse post-operative conditions that might be associated with sarcopenia and low skeletal muscle mass.…”