Sarcopenia, a newly recognized geriatric syndrome, is characterized by age-related
decline of skeletal muscle plus low muscle strength and/or physical performance. Previous
studies have confirmed the association of sarcopenia and adverse health outcomes,
such as falls, disability, hospital admission, long term care placement, poorer quality
of life, and mortality, which denotes the importance of sarcopenia in the health care
for older people. Despite the clinical significance of sarcopenia, the operational
definition of sarcopenia and standardized intervention programs are still lacking.
It is generally agreed by the different working groups for sarcopenia in the world
that sarcopenia should be defined through a combined approach of muscle mass and muscle
quality, however, selecting appropriate diagnostic cutoff values for all the measurements
in Asian populations is challenging. Asia is a rapidly aging region with a huge population,
so the impact of sarcopenia to this region is estimated to be huge as well. Asian
Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) aimed to promote sarcopenia research in Asia,
and we collected the best available evidences of sarcopenia researches from Asian
countries to establish the consensus for sarcopenia diagnosis. AWGS has agreed with
the previous reports that sarcopenia should be described as low muscle mass plus low
muscle strength and/or low physical performance, and we also recommend outcome indicators
for further researches, as well as the conditions that sarcopenia should be assessed.
In addition to sarcopenia screening for community-dwelling older people, AWGS recommends
sarcopenia assessment in certain clinical conditions and healthcare settings to facilitate
implementing sarcopenia in clinical practice. Moreover, we also recommend cutoff values
for muscle mass measurements (7.0 kg/m(2) for men and 5.4 kg/m(2) for women by using
dual X-ray absorptiometry, and 7.0 kg/m(2) for men and 5.7 kg/m(2) for women by using
bioimpedance analysis), handgrip strength (<26 kg for men and <18 kg for women), and
usual gait speed (<0.8 m/s). However, a number of challenges remained to be solved
in the future. Asia is made up of a great number of ethnicities. The majority of currently
available studies have been published from eastern Asia, therefore, more studies of
sarcopenia in south, southeastern, and western Asia should be promoted. On the other
hand, most Asian studies have been conducted in a cross-sectional design and few longitudinal
studies have not necessarily collected the commonly used outcome indicators as other
reports from Western countries. Nevertheless, the AWGS consensus report is believed
to promote more Asian sarcopenia research, and most important of all, to focus on
sarcopenia intervention studies and the implementation of sarcopenia in clinical practice
to improve health care outcomes of older people in the communities and the healthcare
settings in Asia.
Copyright © 2014 American Medical Directors Association, Inc. Published by Elsevier
Inc. All rights reserved.