title: Sarcopenia: prevalence and prognostic significance in hospitalized patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sarcopenia is prevalent in older populations with many causes and varying outcomes however information for use in clinical practice is still lacking.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this report is to identify the clinical determinants and prognostic significance of sarcopenia in a cohort of hospitalized acutely ill older patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four hundred and thirty two randomly selected patients had their baseline clinical characteristic data assessed within 72 h of admission, at 6 weeks and at 6 months. Nutritional status was assessed from anthropometric and biochemical data. Sarcopenia was diagnosed from low muscle mass and low muscle strength-hand grip using anthropometric measures based on the European Working Group criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with patients without sarcopenia, those diagnosed with sarcopenia 44 (10%) were more likely to be older, have more depression symptoms and lower serum albumin concentration. The length of hospital stay (LOS) was significantly longer in patients diagnosed with sarcopenia compared with patients without sarcopenia [mean (SD) LOS 13.4 (8.8) versus 9.4 (7) days respectively, p = 0.003]. The risk of non-elective readmission in the 6 months follow up period was significantly lower in patients without sarcopenia compared with those diagnosed with sarcopenia (adjusted hazard ratio .53 (95% CI: .32 to .87, p = 0.013). The death rate was also lower in patients without sarcopenia 38/388 (10%), compared with those with sarcopenia 12/44 (27%), p-value = .001.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Older people with sarcopenia have poor clinical outcome following acute illness compared with those without sarcopenia.
authors: Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), UAE; University of Sheffield, UK. Electronic address: s.gariballa@uaeu.ac.ae.
authors: Salah
authors: S
authors: Gariballa
authors: Awad
authors: A
authors: Alessa
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D053580:Muscle Strength; D010359:Patient Readmission; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D055948:Sarcopenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*
keywords: Acute illness; Nutrition; Older people; Outcome; Sarcopenia