Anthropometric indicators as a discriminator of sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults of the Amazon region: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia is a geriatric syndrome associated with negative health outcomes and the use of viable alternative screening tools may help in the diagnosis of this condition. This study aimed to analyze the association of sarcopenia with anthropometric indicators among community-dwelling older adults and to identify cut-off points for such indicators as a discriminant criterion for predicting sarcopenia. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on community-dwelling older adults ≥60 years old (n = 411) of both sexes from Macapá, Amapá, Brazil. Socioeconomic, clinical and anthropometric data (arm circumference - AC, waist circumference - WC, calf circumference - CC and body mass index – BMI) were collected using a structured form. Sarcopenia was identified according to the EWGSOP 2 consensus. The association between anthropometric indicators and sarcopenia was performed using logistic regression and cut-off points established from the ROC Curve. Statistical significance was defined as p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: Adjusted analysis indicated an independent and inverse association between sarcopenia and the anthropometric indicators: AC (odds ratio, OR: 0.63; 95% confidence interval, 95%CI: 0.53–0.76), CC (OR: 0.73; 95%CI: 0.62–0.85), WC (OR: 0.93; 95%CI: 0.90–0.97) and BMI (OR: 0.64; 95%CI: 0.53–0.76). The following cut-off points for older men and women represented the discriminant criterion for the presence of sarcopenia: WC (≤97 and ≤ 86 cm), CC (≤33 and ≤ 31 cm), AC (≤27 cm) and BMI (≤24.8 kg/m(2) and ≤ 24.5 kg/m(2)) (area under the ROC curve superior to 0.70). BMI and AC were the indicators with the highest ability to discriminate older adults of both sexes with sarcopenia. CONCLUSIONS: An increase of one unit of the indicators can reduce the probability of occurrence of sarcopenia. All indicators were considered to discriminate the occurrence of sarcopenia, with emphasis on BMI and AC, and could be used to screen for this condition among community-dwelling older adults. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-020-01923-y.