ArticlePloS one2021
Motor function is the primary driver of the associations of sarcopenia and physical frailty with adverse health outcomes in community-dwelling older adults.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Digital Health Interventions in Older Adults With Frailty and Sarcopenia: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- The association between muscle mass and change in physical functioning in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies.European geriatric medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Mind-Body Exercise in Older Adults With Sarcopenia and Frailty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2025Pooled it
- Association of muscle wasting with mortality risk among adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Hand grip strength and loss of independence in Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealand octogenarians-the LiLACS NZ cohort study.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Article
- A Pragmatic Two-Step Screening Algorithm for Sarcopenia and Frailty in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Population-Based Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Sarcopenia and mortality in Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealand octogenarians-the LiLACS NZ cohort study.European geriatric medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- The impact of frailty on quality of life among older adults in nursing homes: the mediating role of psychological resilience.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Evaluation of Sarcopenia screening indices as predictors of mortality in older patients with Alzheimer's disease.BMC geriatrics · 2024Observational
- Accelerated sarcopenia precedes learning and memory impairments in the P301S mouse model of tauopathies and Alzheimer's disease.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2024Article
- Zebrafish as a Human Muscle Model for Studying Age-Dependent Sarcopenia and Frailty.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- The Feasibilty of the Motor Control Home Ergonomics Elderlies' Prevention of Falls (McHeELP) Programme in Patients with Sarcopenia: A Pilot Study.Journal of frailty, sarcopenia and falls · 2024Article
- Circadian disturbances and frailty risk in older adults.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Brainstem noradrenergic neurons: Identifying a hub at the intersection of cognition, motility, and skeletal muscle regulation.Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2022Review
- Interventions to Improve Physical Capability of Older Adults with Mild Disabilities: A Case Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Mixed Neuropathologies, Neural Motor Resilience and Target Discovery for Therapies of Late-Life Motor Impairment.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThis study tested the hypothesis that sarcopenia and its constituent components, reduced lean muscle mass and impaired motor function, are associated with reduced survival and increased risk of incident disabilities.
methods1466 community-dwelling older adults underwent assessment of muscle mass with bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), grip strength, gait speed and other components of physical frailty and annual self-report assessments of disability. We used Cox proportional hazards models that controlled for age, sex, race, education and height to examine the associations of a continuous sarcopenia metric with the hazard of death and incident disabilities.
resultsMean baseline age was about 80 years old and follow-up was 5.5 years. In a proportional hazards model controlling for age, sex, race, education and baseline sarcopenia, each 1-SD higher score on a continuous sarcopenia scale was associated with lower hazards of death (HR 0.70, 95%CI [0.62, 0.78]), incident IADL (HR 0.80,95%CI [0.70, 0.93]), incident ADL disability (HR 0.80 95%CI [71, 91]) and incident mobility disability (HR 0.81, 95%CI [0.70, 0.93]). Further analyses suggest that grip strength and gait speed rather than muscle mass drive the associations with all four adverse health outcomes. Similar findings were observed when controlling for additional measures used to assess physical frailty including BMI, fatigue and physical activity.
conclusionsMotor function is the primary driver of the associations of sarcopenia and physical frailty with diverse adverse health outcomes. Further work is needed to identify other facets of muscle structure and motor function which together can identify adults at risk for specific adverse health outcomes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.