Prevalence and Associated Factors with Sarcopenia in Physically Active Subjects Over 50 Years of Age

Abstract

The sarcopenia has a high prevalence and various triggers factors, which should be identified for prevention and reversal. PURPOSE: to determine the prevalence and associated factors with sarcopenia in physically active subjects. METHODS: 910 subjects were evaluated (788 women and 122 men) who were involved in physical activity programs from the Longitudinal Project of Aging and Physical Fitness of Sao Caetano do Sul. Sarcopenia was determined by The European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) criteria that takes into account low muscle mass (arm muscle circumference) and low muscle strength (hand grip) or low physical performance (gait speed). The independent variables were assessed by an anamnesis, as well as anthropometric measures (waist and calf circumference), BMI and level of physical activity assessed by IPAQ short version. Poisson Regression analysis with robust variance was used to estimate the prevalence ratio with 95% confidence intervals. The significance level adopted was p <.05. RESULTS: 18.4% of the sample had low muscle mass, 50.9% low muscle strength and 34.2% had reduced gait speed resulting in 13.5% prevalence of sarcopenia. Both groups met the recommendation of 150 min/week (on average 247.5 ± 161.2 min/week for non sarcopenic and 297 ± 162 min/week for sarcopenic). CONCLUSIONS: Lower calf circumference and low body weight were determined as risk factors for sarcopenia while overweight and greater waist circumference has showed as a protective factor for sarcopenia. It is noteworthy that the level of physical activity of this sample may have contributed to the low prevalence of sarcopenia.