The Association between Sarcopenia and Prealbumin Levels among Elderly Chinese Inpatients.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of the present study was to assess the relationship between sarcopenia and prealbumin levels among hospitalized patients ages 60 and older.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

SETTING: The geriatric wards in Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital, Guiyang. Guizhou, China.

MEASUREMENTS: Sarcopenia was defined according to the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) criteria, which consist of three components: low muscle mass, assessed based on an index of appendicular skeletal mass/height2 <7.0kg/m2 for men and <5.4kg/m2 for women; low muscle strength, defined as handgrip strength <26kg for men and <18kg for women; and low physical performance, defined as gait speed <0.8m/s. Using these criteria, sarcopenia was defined as presence of low muscle mass in addition to low muscle strength and/or low physical performance. Prealbumin levels and other variables were considered as being independent variables in an effort to evaluate any potential associations between these factors and sarcopenia status using non-adjusted and multivariate-adjusted regression models.

RESULTS: The overall prevalence of sarcopenia was 60.17%, affecting 65 (70.65%) men and 6 (23.08%) women in the present study. Age, body mass index (BMI), and prealbumin levels were each independently associated with sarcopenia (p<0.05). In a multivariate model, after adjusting for all potential covariates, prealbumin levels remained significantly associated with sarcopenia incidence, with an inflection point of 265.9mg/L. The effect sizes and the confidence intervals on the left and right sides of this inflection point were 0.94 (0.90 to 0.99) and 1.07 (0.93 to 1.23), respectively.

CONCLUSION: Among older Chinese inpatients in the present study, prealbumin levels were negatively correlated with sarcopenia incidence, when prealbumin levels were below 265.9mg/L.