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Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Sep 8;22(1):1702.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13909-z.

Prevalence of sarcopenia in Chinese community-dwelling elderly: a systematic review

Xiaoyu Ren  1 , Xianliang Zhang  1 , Qiang He  1 , Litao Du  1 , Ke Chen  1 , Si Chen  2 , Yang Pan  3
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Prevalence of sarcopenia in Chinese community-dwelling elderly: a systematic review

Xiaoyu Ren et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Sarcopenia is associated with age-related loss of muscle mass and function and is becoming prevalent in the older Chinese population. This systematic review aims to obtain a reliable estimation of the prevalence of sarcopenia among community-dwelling Chinese populations aged 65 years and older and to characterize its epidemiology.

Methods: A literature search was performed in the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, and CQVIP databases up to September 31, 2021. All studies that reported the prevalence of sarcopenia in Chinese community-dwelling older adults were included, and Hoy et al.'s tool was used to assess the risk of bias. The overall prevalence of sarcopenia will be calculated as the primary outcome, and subgroup analyses will be performed by study year, age, sex, muscle mass assessment method, diagnostic criteria and area.

Results: A total of 26 studies were included in this study, which involved 25,921 subjects, and 3597 had sarcopenia. Although significant heterogeneity between studies was reported, no statistically significant publication bias was detected. The overall prevalence of sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults aged over 65 years in the Chinese population was 17.4% (95% CI: 14.6%-20.2%). Subgroup analysis based on study year, age and sex, muscle mass assessment method, diagnostic criteria, region and area showed that the prevalence of sarcopenia was different in each subgroup.

Implications: The prevalence of sarcopenia in Chinese community-dwelling older adults was higher than that in previous studies. As a multidimensional survey of the prevalence of sarcopenia in older adults, this meta-analysis provides data support for the targeted management of sarcopenia among Chinese older adults.

Keywords: China; Meta-analysis; Older Adults; Prevalence; Sarcopenia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA flowchart presenting the summary of searches carried out in the literature
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Forest plot of the prevalence of sarcopenia in Chinese community-dwelling older adults
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Subgroup analysis of the prevalence of sarcopenia by age
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Subgroup analysis of the prevalence of sarcopenia by sex
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Subgroup analysis of the prevalence of sarcopenia by assessment method
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Subgroup analysis of the prevalence of sarcopenia by diagnostic criteria
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Subgroup analysis of the prevalence of sarcopenia by area
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Sensitivity analysis of all included studies
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Funnel plot of publication bias of included studies
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Publication bias plot of included studies by Egger’s test
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
Funnel plot after using the trim and fill method
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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