Sarcopenia-related Quality Of Life: A Practical Tool For Early Risk Detection In Older Adult

Sarcopenia is a disease that causes adverse muscular changes with aging, and early screening may be critical in prevention and treatment. Past studies have not investigated early detection of sarcopenia risk using questionnaires with older adults who do and do not resistance train. PURPOSE: To examine the sensitivity of two sarcopenia-related risk questionnaires (SarQoL, SARC-F) in detecting group differences between resistance-trained and non-resistance-trained older adults. METHODS: Thirty-eight healthy participants completed a survey assessing sarcopenia-related quality of life (SarQoL) and sarcopenia-related risk factors (SARC-F), after being categorized into two groups based on resistance training status: Older Not Resistance Trained (ONT: n = 21; 68.3 ± 1.6 years) and Older Resistance Trained (ORT: n = 17; 69.2 ± 1.8 years). The ORT group had been performing resistance exercise ≥2 times/week for at least the last 6 months. The SarQoL assessed Total SarQoL and 2 dimensions: Physical and Mental Health and Locomotion, on a scale from 0-100 [higher score = higher quality of life (QoL)]. The SARC-F has 5-items that address difficulty with lifting and carrying, walking, rising from a chair, climbing stairs (0-3 scale), and frequency of falls. Independent t-tests determined group differences, and effect size is reported as Cohen's d. Data are reported as mean ± SE. RESULTS: For Total SarQoL, ORT (87.1 ± 1.5) scored significantly higher than ONT (81.9 ± 1.1; p = 0.007) with a large effect (d = 1.0). For Physical and Mental Health, ORT (85.8 ± 2.1) scored significantly higher than ONT (77.9 ± 2.0; p = 0.011) with a large effect (d = 0.9). For Locomotion, ORT (91.0 ± 2.2) scored significantly higher than ONT (84.1 ± 2.3; p = 0.036) with a medium effect (d = 0.7). For SARC-F there was no significant difference between the groups (ORT: 0.3 ± 0.2; ONT: 0.2 ± 0.1; p = 0.79; d = 0.1). CONCLUSION: The SarQoL detected differences between resistance-trained and non-resistance-trained older adults, while the SARC-F did not, suggesting the SarQoL may be more sensitive to early sarcopenia risk detection. The resistance trained group reported significantly higher QoL than the untrained group, suggesting that resistance training may be an effective lifestyle strategy to mitigate or delay the onset of sarcopenia symptoms in older adults.