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Validation of population-based cutoffs for low muscle mass and strength in a population of Turkish elderly adults

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Abstract

Background

Despite differences between the studies regarding methods for estimating low muscle mass, the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) recommends use of two standard deviations (SDs) below the reference sex-specific means of healthy young adults.

Aims

The aim of this study was to determine the cutoff points of skeletal muscle mass index (SMI) and handgrip strength (HS) in Turkish population and to compare the power of different cutoff points to predict comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) parameters.

Methods

Two hundred and eight young healthy volunteers (104 women, 104 men) were included in the study to define SMI, HS cutoff values. 1150 older adults (784 women, 366 men) underwent CGA, including physical performance, activities of daily living (ADL), HS and frailty. Body composition was obtained from every participant by bioimpedance analysis (BIA). CGA parameters of sarcopenic patients according to EWGSOP and new Turkish cutoff points were compared.

Results

SMI cutoff points were defined 5.70 kg/m2 for women, 8.33 kg/m2 for men. HS thresholds were calculated as 14 kg for women, 28 kg for men using measurements of healthy young adult reference. Considering the new threshold values, the prevalence of sarcopenia was 10% (7% women, 17% men). When new sarcopenia criteria were applied and covariates were adjusted, sarcopenia was found to be more closely related to ADL impairment, balance, frailty in men, and balance, slow walking speed, ADL impairment, frailty in women (p < 0.05).

Discussion

Muscle mass and strength may vary between populations because of ethnicity and other related discrepancies. The evaluation of sarcopenia according to the present guidelines may cause overdiagnosis in some populations.

Conclusion

Cutoff points specific to populations should be determined.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank healthy participants for contributing to the study.

Funding

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geriatric Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University, Balcova, 35340, Izmir, Turkey

    Esra Ates Bulut, Ozge Dokuzlar, Suleyman Emre Kocyigit, Ali Ekrem Aydin & Ahmet Turan Isik

  2. Department of Geriatric Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Bezmialem Vakif University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Pinar Soysal

  3. Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey

    Idil Yavuz

Authors
  1. Esra Ates Bulut
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  2. Pinar Soysal
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  4. Suleyman Emre Kocyigit
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  5. Ali Ekrem Aydin
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  6. Idil Yavuz
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  7. Ahmet Turan Isik
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Contributions

EAB performed manuscript writing and data collection; PS reviewed the manuscript, carried out conceptualism; OD, SEK and AEA contributed data collection; IY made the statistical analysis, ATI designed the study and supported manuscript writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ahmet Turan Isik.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethics committee approval was received for this study from the Ethics Committee of the Dokuz Eylul University. The investigation was conformed to the Declaration of Helsinki.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Ates Bulut, E., Soysal, P., Dokuzlar, O. et al. Validation of population-based cutoffs for low muscle mass and strength in a population of Turkish elderly adults. Aging Clin Exp Res 32, 1749–1755 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-019-01448-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-019-01448-4

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