Rastreio do risco de sarcopenia em pessoas idosas e fatores associados

Abstract

Sarcopenia is a reversible muscle disease that leads to a decrease in muscle mass and strength, which can lead to: functional disability, increased risk of falls, hospitalizations, mortality and decreased quality of life. This research aimed to: track the risk of sarcopenia and associated factors in elderly people treated at Primary Health Care in the municipality of Icó, Ceará. This is an epidemiological and cross-sectional study, carried out with 354 elderly people. The survey was carried out between September 2022 and March 2023. The inclusion criteria were: elderly aged 60 years or older enrolled in Primary Health Care units in the municipality of Icó, Ceará. Elderly people who had no possibility of communication and dementia were excluded, the diagnoses being presented through medical records or reports from the family and caregivers, or that had a score lower than the cutoff point in the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), according to the years of study. The instruments used were: sociodemographic, clinical and anthropometric data form, the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MAN®), the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) adapted for elderly people and the Questionnaire to Rapidly Diagnose Sarcopenia (SARC-F). The project was submitted for analysis by the Ethics and Research Committee (CEP) of the Federal University of Ceará, through the Brazil Platform, being approved with opinion nº 5,632,551. Data were grouped and statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science program version 22.0, using descriptive statistics and associations between the outcome variable (suggestive of sarcopenia), as well as the independent variables using the Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests with a significance level of 5% (p <0.05). The results showed a mean age of 69.1 (±7.44) years, prevalent females with 229 elderly (64.7%), with few years of study, 261 (73.7%) with up to 4 years of studies, with an average of 2.13 (±1.16) years, mostly Catholic 286 (80.8%), married 211 (59.6%), living with family 302 (85.3%) , with income of two minimum wages 241 (68.1%), retirees 325 (91.8%) and those who do not have paid employment 308 (91.8%). Clinical data showed that 292 (92%) had some comorbidity, 135 (38.1%) suffered falls in the last year and 276 (79, 5%) used four or more medications per day. Among the investigated comorbidities, the most prevalent was hypertension (31.9%) followed by diabetes (13.2%) and osteoarticular diseases (4.2%). Regarding the assessment of physical activity, most were active 308 (87%) and with normal nutritional status 328 (92.6%). It was found that 115 (32.5%) were at risk of sarcopenia. There was a significant association between the risk of sarcopenia and female gender (p=0.008), age greater than 79 years (p=0.002), elderly people with a score of 20 to 24 (0-4 years of study) (p=0.008) , married marital status (p=0.003), comorbidities (p=0.000), number of falls (p=0.000), physical activity (p=0.000) and calf circumference (p=0.000). The study both brought findings that corroborate the literature on the subject, as elements that may give rise to new investigations. It is also reinforced that research carried out in this way is comprehensive and of interest to different health professionals and managers, in addition to being the basis for intervention studies that investigate the cause-and-effect relationship. Replication in other scenarios is suggested, as they can contribute to health promotion measures and sarcopenia prevention more efficiently.