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

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 11698 - 10
• Main Authors: Barreto de Lima, Alex, dos Santos Ribeiro, Gustavo, Henriques-Neto, Duarte, Rúbio Gouveia, Élvio, Baptista, Fátima
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 20-07-2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 692/308/409; 692/700/1518; Aged; Body fat; Body mass index; Brazil - epidemiology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Gait; Geriatric Assessment; Hand Strength; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Male; Mass Screening; multidisciplinary; Older people; Sarcopenia; Sarcopenia - diagnosis; Sarcopenia - epidemiology; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Skeletal muscle; Surveys and Questionnaires; Walking; Brazil
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-39002-y

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: C
I
: < 27 kg/16 kg; C
II
: < 35.5 kg/20.0 kg; C
III
: grip over body mass index < 1.05/< 0.79; C
IV
: grip strength over total body fat < 1.66/< 0.65; C
V
: grip over bodyweight < 0.45/< 0.34; C
VI
: < 27 kg/16 kg and low skeletal muscle mass index (SMMI); C
I
and C
VI
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: C
I
 = 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: C
I
 = 0.201 ± 0.069,
p
 = 0.003; C
II
 = 0.186 ± 0.064,
p
 = 0.005; GS = 0.273 ± 0.068,
p
 = 0.0001; and for men: C
II
 = 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.