SARC‐F: A validation study with community‐dwelling older Japanese adults

Abstract

Aim The SARC‐F is a useful clinical index for sarcopenia screening; however, this measure has low sensitivity. Furthermore, this tool has never been validated on community‐dwelling older Japanese adults. The goal of the present study was to validate a Japanese version of the SARC‐F and confirm its suitability for Japanese samples. Methods Participants were 734 community‐dwelling older adults in the Itabashi Ward, Japan. Bioimpedance measures, walking speed, grip strength and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) were measured. Sarcopenia was defined using the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People, the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia criteria and Japanese‐adjusted Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia. SARC‐F receiver operating characteristic curves for each sarcopenia measure were used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy. Physical functioning, IADL and sarcopenia screening tools were compared with the SARC‐F. Results A total of nine men (3.1%) and 15 women (3.4%) were classified into a SARC‐F sarcopenia group. The sarcopenia group had lower physical functioning and Mini Sarcopenia Risk Assessment scores and higher frailty status than the control group. The Cronbach's alpha for the SARC‐F was 0.610, suggesting insufficient internal consistency. SARC‐F scores were related to physical functioning, IADL, and Mini Sarcopenia Risk Assessment scores. Receiver operating characteristic analyses of the SARC‐F based on each criterion showed low sensitivity, but high specificity. Conclusions The Japanese version of the SARC‐F appears to be a useful index for reflecting physical functioning and IADL. However, it is necessary to further determine whether this tool is useful for detecting sarcopenia among community‐dwelling older adults. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2019; 19: 1172–1178.

<p>Polish Translation and Validation of the SARC-F Tool for the Assessment of Sarcopenia</p>

“…In the present study, high sensitivity and specificity of SARC-F were observed (92.9% and 98.1%, respectively), which proves that the tool detects cases with no sarcopenia and identifies individuals with sarcopenia. Similar specificity values were reported by Woo et al (98.7% for men, and 94.4% for women), 24 Kera et al (97.3%) 25 and Kim et al (91.2%). 26 However, the sensitivity values in the present study were very high as compared to the abovementioned authors.…”

“…SARC-F was originally developed in English but EWGSOP2 recommends for it to be translated and validated into other languages as well. SARC-F has already been translated into Brazilian Portuguese, 27 Chinese, 28 Japanese, 25 Korean, 26 Mexican Spanish, 11 and numerous other language validations in Europe are currently in progress.…”

Polish version of SARC-F to assess sarcopenia in older adults: An examination of reliability and validity

“…In line with the results of some previous studies, we have demonstrated a correlation between SARC-F and some parameters associated with sarcopenia, such as age, low gait speed, low upper and lower limb strength, and low ALM [19,20,24]. Similarly to the findings of Kera et al [19], we have observed a correlation between SARC-F results and the ability to perform basic and instrumental activities of daily living (assessed with Katz and Lawton Scales). Based on our analysis, the Polish version of the SARC-F showed adequate validity as a diagnostic tool for sarcopenia.…”

“…In 2019, Sanchez-Rodriguez et al published similar results (Cronbach's alpha 0.779) for the Spanish version of SARC-F [16]. In contrast, insufficient internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha below the threshold 0.65) was found for the Japanese version of the SARC-F and the version translated into Spanish and culturally adapted for the Mexican population (Cronbach's alpha 0.610 and 0.641, respectively [19,20].…”

“…To extend the SARC-F questionnaire's availability, Special Interest Group on Sarcopenia of European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EuGMS) included language translation and validation of SARC-F among their priorities in 2017 [13]. Such analyses have been conducted by several research teams in the world [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. Following the encouragement of EuGMS, we decided to translate the SARC-F into Polish and validate it against six sets of diagnostic criteria for sarcopenia: EWGSOP1 [5], EWGSOP2 [1], FNIH [6], AWGS [7], IWGS [8] and SCWD [9].…”