Association between physical, cognitive and social activity and incident sarcopenia among older adults with cognitive decline: A 4‐year longitudinal study

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundCognitive decline and sarcopenia are associated with each other among older adults. However, it is unclear that the prospective association of older adults with cognitive decline with incident sarcopenia. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine longitudinal association between physical, cognitive and social activities and incident sarcopenia among older adults with cognitive decline.MethodAmong older adults with cognitive decline (MMSE score range: 18 to 27) aged 65 years or older who participated in the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, 1440 participants (mean age: 71.6 ± 4.9, man: 53.3%) were included after excluding those who meet the exclusion criteria. The participants were asked about the status of implementation concerning physical (PA), cognitive (CA) and social activity (SA), respectively. The participants were categorized to high/low‐PA, high/low‐CA and high/low‐SA group. Sarcopenia was defined by the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People2, and participants were classified as robust or sarcopenia.ResultDuring 4 years, 361 (25.1%) participants developed sarcopenia. After adjusting for covariates (age, sex, education level, medication, current smoking and alcohol), the logistic regression analysis model showed that low‐PA group (OR 1.77, 95%CI 1.23‐2.56) and low‐SA group (OR 1.40, 95%CI 1.05‐1.85) had a significantly higher risk of incident sarcopenia compared with each high group. Low‐CA group had no significant association with incident sarcopenia.ConclusionIn older adults with cognitive decline, low physical and social activity in daily life influences the future incidence of sarcopenia. On the other hand, cognitive activity might not be effective in preventing incident sarcopenia, especially among older adults with cognitive decline.