Prevalence of sarcopenia in socially active older adults and its association with sex and nutritional risk: an analysis of Bayesian networks

Objective To verify the prevalence of sarcopenia and its relationship with sociodemographic and clinical factors, including nutritional risk, in socially active older adults, as well as to investigate sex differences in factors associated with sarcopenia. Method A cross-sectional study included 400 older adults (342 women, 58 men) attending community groups in the city of Santa Maria, RS, Brazil. Participants were diagnosed according to EWGSOP2 (2019) criteria, and nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA®). Bayesian network models with total sample and stratified by sex were used to explore the relationship between sarcopenia and sociodemographic and clinical factors. A resampling process was conducted to assess the statistical performance of the network models. Results The prevalence of sarcopenia was 10.2%. In the network model for the total sample, the probability of sarcopenia was higher among men with nutritional risk. In the female network, the probability of being sarcopenic was higher in the subgroup of long-lived individuals aged 80 years or older. In contrast, in the male network only nutritional risk increased the probability of sarcopenia. All network models reached good performance, with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) above 0.89. Conclusion This study was the first to use Bayesian networks to investigate factors associated with sarcopenia in socially active older adults, which differ by sex. This study highlights the importance of diagnosing sarcopenia and incorporating MNA® in clinical practice.