Sarcopenia: Body Composition and Gait Analysis

Yuxuan Fan; Bo Zhang; Guohao Huang; Guoying Zhang; Zhiyuan Ding; Zhiyu Li; Jonathan Sinclair; Yifang Fan

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.909551

Sarcopenia: Body Composition and Gait Analysis

Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Jul 13:14:909551. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.909551. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yuxuan Fan¹, Bo Zhang², Guohao Huang¹, Guoying Zhang¹, Zhiyuan Ding¹, Zhiyu Li³, Jonathan Sinclair⁴, Yifang Fan¹

Affiliations

¹ Foot Research Laboratory, School of Physical Education and Sport Science, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China.
² College of Sports and Health, Guangzhou Sport University, Guangzhou, China.
³ College of Foreign Studies, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Research Centre for Applied Sport, Physical Activity and Performance, School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Background: Age-induced sarcopenia negatively affects walking stability and increases the risk of falls, which is the leading cause of accidental death in the elderly.

Objective: This study aimed to analyze and contrast body composition and gait characteristics in those with sarcopenia in relation to healthy controls to shed some light on the prevention of falls in elderly patients with sarcopenia.

Materials and methods: In this study, 68 community dwellers were scanned by the Hologic QDR-4500A Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The appendicular lean mass index (ALMI) results were used to distinguish the normal participants from those with sarcopenia: 24 in the sarcopenia group, and 44 into the normal group. The participants were asked to undergo gait analysis on a plantar pressure measurement system. Statistical analysis was conducted to contrast both groups' gait and butterfly parameters from their gait test, and then a gait forward dynamics method was performed to quantify the analysis for both groups.

Results: The ALMI of the female was not related to their age (r = 0.06) while that of the male was weakly related (r = 0.17). Body mass index (BMI) from both groups was normal, although with a statistically greater BMI from the normal group compared with sarcopenia (p < 0.001). Greater values and significant differences were found in step length and stride length from the normal elderly group (p < 0.01), and so was the length of the gait line and single support line (p < 0.05). Gait forward dynamics analysis results showed no motor neural or musculoskeletal disorders in their gait performance from the sarcopenia group.

Conclusion: For the elderly, age did not largely affect the ALMI, BMI, or T-score, but BMI and ALMI were strongly correlated. In this study, significant differences were found in certain gait parameters between the elderly with sarcopenia and the normal elderly, which were related to absolute muscle strength, suggesting that sarcopenia was a disease mainly caused by decreased muscle mass. In addition, when abnormities were identified in step length, stride length, length of gait line, or length of single support line, it is proposed to take a DXA scan to confirm whether the elderly suffer from sarcopenia.

Keywords: body composition; butterfly parameters; gait forward dynamics method; gait parameters; sarcopenia.