Cross-sectional study reveals revised AWGS 2025 criteria increase sarcopenia detection in older adults, indicating improved identification of adiposity-related muscle loss.
Key Points
Evaluate the clinical impact of revised AWGS 2025 diagnostic criteria and the ASM/BMI index on sarcopenia and low muscle mass classification in older adults.
Conducted a cross-sectional study in 8,073 community-dwelling adults aged ≥60 years attending a tertiary geriatric outpatient clinic in Thailand.
Classified low muscle mass and sarcopenia prevalence across AWGS 2019 definitions, AWGS 2025 revised ASM/height² cutoffs, and AWGS 2025 ASM/BMI criteria.
Evaluated age- and sex-adjusted associations of ASM/height² and ASM/BMI with handgrip strength and gait speed.
Low muscle mass prevalence increased from 43.2% (AWGS 2019) to 44.6% (AWGS 2025 ASM/height²) and 51.4% (with ASM/BMI), while sarcopenia prevalence increased from 15.1% to 17.5% and 19.7%, respectively.
The ASM/BMI criterion identified 547 additional individuals with low muscle mass who showed greater overall and central adiposity compared to those identified by ASM/height² alone.
ASM/height² was positively associated with handgrip strength (standardized β=0.262, p<0.001), whereas ASM/BMI was positively associated with gait speed (standardized β=0.122, p<0.001).
Cite This Study
Ubonsutvanich et al. (2026) studied this question.