The Relationship Between Physical Activity and the Presence of Sarcopenia in Older Adults: A Taiwanese Cross-sectional Study

To the best of our knowledge, none of Taiwanese studies on the relationship between physical activity (PA) and sarcopenia by the latest 2019 Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) cutoff points of sarcopenia has been published. We used the Taiwan version of international physical activity questionnaire-short version and the 2019 AWGS diagnostic criteria of sarcopenia to examine the relationship between PA and sarcopenia in older adults. Volunteers in this cross-sectional study were recruited from those attending senior health checkup program held at a regional hospital in Taipei City from May 2019 to Sep 2019. Muscle strength was assessed by grip strength, physical performance was assessed by usual gait speed on a 6-meter course, and muscle mass was measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between PA and sarcopenia. 565 participants were recruited and data from 500 participants were used. 138 (27.6%) participants were classified as having sarcopenia, which included 87 women and 51 men. Among women, compared with those with low PA, moderate to high PA protected against the risk of sarcopenia with the adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=0.52 (95% CI: 0.27-0.98, p-value=0.043). As for men, the aOR was 0.34 (95% CI: 0.12-0.95, p-value=0.039). A significant protective effect of PA on sarcopenia was found among the older adults after adjusting for confounders, especially for the male participants.