title: Are current definitions of sarcopenia applicable for older Chinese adults?
abstract: This study aims to explore whether the current definitions of sarcopenia are applicable to the older Chinese population. Participants were 783 Chinese adults recruited from four regions in Mainland China: Jinan, Guangzhou, Xi'an, and Chengdu. Body composition was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Handgrip strength, body weight, and height were measured by trained technicians, and demographic data were collected through questionnaires. Relative appendicular skeletal muscle, skeletal muscle index (SMI=100 × skeletal muscle mass/ body mass) and residuals methods were applied to identify sarcopenia. Compared with young adults, no significant decrease was found in the relative appendicular skeletal muscle (ASM/height2) in older adults. If the criterion of two standard deviations below the mean value of ASM/height2 in young adults is used, none of older adults in this study could be diagnosed with sarcopenia. In addition, compared with the ASM/height2 and residuals methods, SMI shows higher discriminating power in the identifying persons with low handgrip strength. The data suggest that ASM/height2 method may not be appropriate for diagnosis of sarcopenia in Chinese population. However, whether SMI is a better choice remains inconclusive. Prospective studies are needed to clearly define sarcopenia in Chinese population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. wenxu@zju.edu.cn
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: C-M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Y-M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001823:Body Composition; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D053580:Muscle Strength; D018908:Muscle Weakness; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal; D009929:Organ Size; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055948:Sarcopenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D055815:Young Adult