Age-associated decline of muscle mass, grip strength and gait speed: a 4-year longitudinal study of 3018 community-dwelling older Chinese.

Aims: Studies about sarcopenia in Asia are fewer, and started later than in Europe and America. We attempted to examine the decline in muscle mass, grip strength and gait speed in a cohort of older Chinese prospectively over 4 years.

Methods: We recruited 4000 community-living Chinese older than 64 years, and measured their appendicular skeletal mass (ASM) by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, grip strength, and gait speed at baseline and after 2 years.