Cognitive and behavioral factors associated to probable sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults

ABSTRACT

Background

Sarcopenia has a high prevalence in older adults and is associated with chronic aggravations to health, so therefore it is important to identify older adults who are affected by sarcopenia in order to establish preventative strategies or early interventions.

Objective

To estimate the prevalence of probable sarcopenia and verify its association with cognitive impairment, fear of falling, depressive symptoms and health self-perception in community-dwelling older adults.

Methods

A cross-sectional study with simple random sampling including 306 older adults of both genders. The outcome variable was probable sarcopenia evaluated by the Five times sit-to-stand test (5XSST) considering probable sarcopenia when the measured time was > 15 seconds, following the recommendation of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People. The predictor variables were cognitive impairment, fear of falling, depressive symptoms and self-perception of health. Multivariate Logistic Regression was performed to verify associations between the variables.

Results

The prevalence of probable sarcopenia was 50.00%. The older adults had significantly higher chances of presenting probable sarcopenia when displaying cognitive impairment (OR 2.49; 95%CI 1.46–4.24), fear of falls (OR 4.23; 95%CI 2.51–7.12), depressive symptoms (OR 2.20; 95%CI 1.32–3.67), poor (OR 2.48; 95%CI 1.19–5.16) and fair self-perception of health (OR 2.11; 95%CI 1.22–3.63) when compared to those who did not have the same conditions.

Conclusion

The prevalence of probable sarcopenia in this study was 50.00%, and was associated with the presence of depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, fear of falls and negative self-perception of health.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Municipal Health Secretariat and the professionals who work in the Basic Health Units of the municipality Balneário Arroio do Silva de Santa Catarina for assisting in conducting the project and facilitating contact with the sampled older adult population.

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declare that there is no conflict of interest that could skew the results of this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was carried out with the support of the Foundation for the Support of Research and Innovation of the State of Santa Catarina (FAPESC), in partnership with the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - Brazil (CAPES) - Financing Code 001.