Sarcopenia in elderly outpatients: prevalence and associated factors

Introduction: Sarcopenia is defined as a geriatric syndrome, multifactorial, characterized by progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength and associated with serious consequences, such as comorbidities, poor quality of life and mortality. Objective: To identify the prevalence and factors associated with sarcopenia in elderly assisted outpatients. Methods: Cross-sectional, observational study with elderly patients of both sexes assisted in geriatric outpatient clinic between June and December 2014. Sarcopenia was determined by muscle (calf circumference < 31 cm), muscle strength (measured by grip strength palmar < 30 kg for men and < 20 kg for women) and gait speed (< 0.8 meters/second). Among the association of variables, socioeconomic and demographic, clinical, lifestyle and anthropometry were considered. The tabulation and analysis were performed using the statistical package SPSS version 13.0. Results: The sample consisted of 50 patients with a mean age of 73.9 (+/- 7.4) years, in which 18% prevalence of sarcopenia was observed. Sarcopenia was more prevalent in patients aged >= 80 years (p = 0.012), in the elderly with low weight according to BMI (p < 0.001), with malnutrition according to CB (p = 0.004) and in patients without hypertension (p = 0.027), and there was no association with socioeconomic, clinical and lifestyle. Conclusions: The prevalence of sarcopenia was significant and similar to that described by other authors, being in association with advancing age, malnutrition and lack of hypertension.