Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate 2 operational criteria of the muscle loss adjusted to the body mass index in relation to the discriminative values for muscle mass corrected by height, in elderly Brazilian women. Muscle function (handgrip strength and gait speed) and body composition (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry) were evaluated. A total of 112 elderly women (mean, 76.42 years; standard deviation, 6.53 years) participated of this study. The muscle loss index adjusted to the body mass was not capable of identifying elderly participants with muscle loss, as muscle mass corrected by height, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.52. There was no significance after the concordance analysis ([kappa]= 0.03, P = .73). The handgrip strength was higher in the nonsarcopenic group when we used the muscle loss index adjusted to the body mass (P <.01). Other comparisons were not significant (P > .05). There was a significant difference in the proportions of sarcopenic patients between groups (P = .01).