Thigh and calf circumference for the sarcopenia screening in community-dwelling elderly women

Abstract

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate usefulness and limitations of measurement of thigh and calf circumference for the sarcopenia screening in community-dwelling elderly women. Methods: One-hundred sixteen community-dwelling elderly women were enrolled. Thigh and calf circumferences, grip strength, walking speed, Short Physical Performance Battery and Timed Up test and Go test were performed. Subjects were divided into two groups, the non-sarcopenia group and the sarcopenia group, and the measured values were compared between the two groups. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was calculated to determine the cut off values of each circumstance were determined by the presence or absence of sarcopenia. Results: Of all the subjects, non-sarcopenia subjects accounted for 91.4% (n=106), and sarcopenia subjects 8.6% (n=10). Thigh circumference and calf circumference of the dominant leg in sarcopenia subjects showed significant lower values than in non-sarcopenia subjects. Cut-off value for sarcopenia of thigh circumference was 37.3 cm (sensitivity 0.821, specificity 0.600, AUC 0.783, p<0.003), while that of the calf circumference was 32.8 cm (sensitivity 0.736, specificity 0.800, AUC 0.792, p<0.002). Conclusions: We confirmed that thigh and calf circumference could be used as a sarcopenia screening in community-dwelling elderly women. Since measurement of calf circumference is easier and calf circumference has high specificity of sarcopenia screening than thigh circumference, calf circumference is thought to have higher measurement significance in community-dwelling elderly women.