What is Sarcopenia?

Muscle weakness is a degenerative disease that is often associated with a decrease in muscle mass and muscle mass with age. The risk of Sarcopenia has increased by 3 - 8% every 10 years past the age of 30, and it continues to accelerate even after 50 years (1,616; 2, 1). Causes of muscle deterioration include sedentary lifestyle habits, malnutrition, decreased protein turnover, decreased insulin response, changes in inflammation, and anabolic hormone reduction (3, 1073). Food proteins are essential for building muscle and avoiding loss of lean body mass (4,686).

Muscle weakness is an age-related disease with symptoms of loss of muscle mass, strength and function. Elderly people over 65 years old are prone to Sarcopenia. It is estimated that about 5-13% of elderly people aged 60 to 70 suffer from sarcopenia. For elderly people over 80 years old, this ratio is about twice. This study also found that elderly men are more likely to have sarcopenia than older women. Declining muscle has been drawing public attention, and more and more research shows that this is the main clinical problem for the elderly.

Background: Decreasing muscle means a decrease in skeletal muscle mass and a decrease in physical function of the elderly. It not only brings bad health outcomes, but it also increases medical expenses. Studies have shown that smoking, malnutrition, lack of physical activity, age, sex, decreased motor activity, and muscle fiber atrophy are factors that cause muscle weakness. In fact, sarcopenia is usually seen in elderly people. There is no universal definition of Sarcopenia. Diagnosis of sarcopenia according to various defined criteria requires the involvement of complex tools and experts. Recently, a simple questionnaire SARC-F was developed to screen muscle weakness.

Studies in Hong Kong have tested the verification of SARC-F as a regional muscle reduction screening tool. It discovered that SARC-F was capable of predicting future adverse effects with ability comparable to other standards. In addition, although SARC-F shows excellent specificity (94.4%) and negative predictive value, it was found that sensitivity is low. SARC - F is highly specific and can be used to screen the elderly with sarcopenia. The poor sensitivity may be due to the fact that the number of participants classified as having sarcopenia is only a fraction of the total population studied. Low sensitivity means that the participants have mild symptoms not meeting standard criteria or only a few people are causing muscle loss in this community.