Three-Year Adverse Health Consequences of Sarcopenia in Community-Dwelling Older Adults According to 5 Diagnosis Definitions.

Objectives: To assess the occurrence of 3 major adverse outcomes of sarcopenia (ie, physical disabilities, institutionalizations and deaths) observed over a 3-year follow-up in older adults and compare the risk of these outcomes using 5 definitions of sarcopenia.

Design: The study is a part of the ongoing SarcoPhAge (for Sarcopenia and Physical Impairment with advancing Age) longitudinal project.

Setting And Participants: The SarcoPhAge study follows 534 community-dwelling older adults.

Measures: Sarcopenia was defined as low muscle mass plus a decreased muscle function. Data on adverse outcomes were collected yearly during the annual follow-up or with a phone call. The association between baseline sarcopenia and the occurrence of undesirable outcomes was tested using the Cox proportional hazards model or a logistic regression model.

Results: A total of 534 subjects were recruited into this prospective cohort (73.5 ± 6.2 years, 60.5% female). After 3 years, 33 participants were lost to follow-up. If no association between baseline sarcopenia and physical disabilities or institutionalizations was highlighted, a higher number of deaths occurred in individuals diagnosed with sarcopenia than in those who were not diagnosed (16.2% vs 4.6%, P value <.001). The probability of death within 3 years when presenting with sarcopenia showed an approximately 3-fold increase compared to subjects without sarcopenia.

Conclusion: Over a 3-year period, sarcopenia at baseline was associated with an increased risk of mortality. There were some variations in the ability of different definitions of sarcopenia to predict outcomes.