Prevalence and Factors Associated With Sarcopenia in Suburb-dwelling Older Chinese Using the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia Definition

Sarcopenia is a common condition in older people. The aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence and factors associated with sarcopenia in an elderly Chinese suburb-dwelling population. This study was conducted on 1,069 Chinese suburb-dwelling participants aged ≥60 years to evaluate sarcopenia using the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia criteria. Sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics, as well as medical conditions, were considered independent variables to determine factors associated with sarcopenia using a logistic regression model. The prevalence of sarcopenia was 6.4% in men and 11.5% in women. Age was a significant factor in both sexes. In addition, presence of sarcopenia was inversely associated with BMI for both sexes. The odds ration and 95% confidence interval for factors statistically significantly associated with sarcopenia were 5.04 (1.70–14.89) and 2.36 (1.06–5.25) for diabetes in males and females, respectively; 10.60 (1.75–64.24) for daily consumption of alcohol (daily drinkers), 5.58 (2.13–14.59) for peptic ulcer in female (not statistically significant in males). The Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia criterion is useful for defining sarcopenia, and our data suggest that the prevalence of sarcopenia in the general elderly suburb-dwelling Chinese population is high. Moreover, we find that high body mass index is inversely associated with the likelihood of being sarcopenic and that several others factors such as diabetes, peptic ulcer, and drinking habits increase the prevalence of sarcopenia.