Original Study
Sarcopenia Screened With SARC-F Questionnaire Is Associated With Quality of Life and 4-Year Mortality

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2016.07.029Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

There is no gold standard in diagnosing sarcopenia. We aimed to assess the validity of screening sarcopenia using SARC-F (sluggishness, assistance in walking, rise from a chair, climb stairs, falls).

Setting

Community hospital in Taiwan.

Participants

Community-dwelling senior citizens.

Measurements

Participants were interviewed with a structured questionnaire annually. The questionnaire items were recoded into the 5 items of SARC-F (sluggishness, assistance in walking, rise from a chair, climb stairs, falls). In the baseline year, a subgroup was tested for grip strength and body composition. Healthcare utilization and mortality were based on self-report and hospital records. Our main outcome was 4-year mortality. Secondary outcomes included hospitalization, emergency care use, and quality of life (QOL) measured using the CASP-12 scale (control, autonomy, self-realization, pleasure (control, autonomy, self-realization, pressure).

Results

There were 670 participants. The mean age was 76.1 (standard deviation 6.36). One-half were men (n = 340, 50.7%). The prevalence of sarcopenia was 6.1% (n = 41). SARC-F scores were inversely associated with grip strength (P = .001) and skeletal muscle composition (P = .045). Participants with sarcopenia were mostly women (P = .005) and older (P < .001). In univariate analysis, sarcopenia was associated with 1- to 4-year mortalities (P = .033, .001, .001, <.001, respectively), overall hospitalization (P = .004), overall emergency care use (P = .017), and QOL (P < .001). In multivariate model, sarcopenia [odds ratio (OR) 7.35, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.67-20.18], age (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.09-1.29 for each year), and taking vitamin D supplements (OR 0.29, 95% CI 0.11-0.74) were factors associated with mortality.

Conclusions

Sarcopenia screened using SARC-F was associated with subsequent QOL, overall hospitalization, overall emergency care use, and 4-year mortality. SARC-F can serve as a quick screening tool of sarcopenia.

Section snippets

Methods

We conducted a hospital-based, prospective cohort study in Taipei City, Taiwan. The population of interest was community-dwelling senior citizens aged 55 years and older. The follow-up period was 4 years, starting from the first year telephone survey (2011, baseline year) and ended in the fifth year of follow-up (2015, year 4), as shown in Figure 1. The detailed methodology was described previously.17, 18 This study was approved by Taipei City Hospital Institutional Review Board

Results

There were 670 participants with a mean age of 76.1 (standard deviation 6.36) years. One-half were men (n = 340, 50.7%). The distribution of the SARC-F scores was right skewed (Figure 2). The majority had SARC-F score of 0 (n = 399, 59.6%). The prevalence of sarcopenia was 6.1% (n = 41) (Table 1). Of the 5 items of SARC-F, loss of strength has the highest prevalence (27.6%) (Appendix 1).

Participants of the validation group (n = 135, 20.1% of total) had a mean age of 74.1 years (standard

Discussion

We observed that among Chinese older people in Taiwan, SARC-F score was inversely associated with grip strength and percentage of skeletal muscle mass. Sarcopenia screened with SARC-F was associated with QOL, 4-year mortality, hospitalization, and emergency care use. SARC-F can predict robust clinical outcomes, such as mortality, up to 4 years.

Conclusions

Among community-dwelling older people in Taiwan, sarcopenia screened using SARC-F is associated with subsequent QOL, emergency care use, hospitalization, and 4-year mortality. SARC-F can serve as a quick screening tool of sarcopenia.

Sarcopenia is a major cause of frailty.3 Considering sarcopenia as a geriatric syndrome allows us to request its recognition and to implement a clinical and public health approach.9 All persons 60 years and older should be screened for sarcopenia and treated when

Acknowledgements

We thank Pf. Li Cao for providing the Chinese version of SARC-F. We thank the assistants Ginger Yeh, Yu-Hui Yang, Tracy Chuang, Arlene Yang, Rui-Yun Li, Katie Wu, Ping-Yen Tsai and Hua Chung for their efforts in data collection and managerial support.

References (25)

  • J. Woo et al.

    Defining sarcopenia in terms of incident adverse outcomes

    J Am Med Dir Assoc

    (2015)
  • J.E. Morley

    Pharmacologic options for the treatment of sarcopenia

    Calcif Tissue Int

    (2016)
  • Cited by (71)

    • Sarcopenia and polypharmacy among older adults: A scoping review of the literature

      2022, Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics
      Citation Excerpt :

      Most of the studies use a specific definition of polypharmacy, the one that is used mostly in the literature. This definition uses the cut-off point of concurrently use of five or more drugs (Agosta et al., 2019; Dodds et al., 2020; Hao et al., 2018; Hirani et al., 2015; Jang et al., 2018, 2020; König et al., 2017; Mastaviciute, Sadauskaite, Kilaite, Tamulaitiene, & Alekna, 2019; Tan et al., 2017; Wu et al., 2016; Yalcin et al., 2016; Yang et al., 2017). Three studies included prescription and non-prescription medications (Hao et al., 2018; König et al., 2017; Mastaviciute, Sadauskaite, Kilaite, Tamulaitiene, & Alekna, 2019).

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This work was supported by the research project of Ministry of Science and Technology, 10F, No.10, Sec.4, Ren-ai Rd., Taipei City, Taiwan (ROC).

    The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

    View full text