How many 85 year olds are affected by loss of
muscle and low strength? Findings from the
Newcastle 85+ study
Dodds RM1,2 Granic A2,3,4 Davies K2,3,4 Kirkwood TBL4,5 Jagger C4,6 Sayer AA1,2,3,4,7,8
1. Academic Geriatric Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton. 2. Ageing Geriatrics & Epidemiology, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University.
3. NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre in Ageing and Chronic Disease, Newcastle University and Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust.
4. Newcastle University Institute for Ageing. 5. Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Newcastle University. 6. Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University.
7. MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton. 8. NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care: Wessex.
How much muscle we have and how well it performs are both important for health and decrease with age.
Sarcopenia is where the amount and performance of muscle are very low and this can cause disability. Not much is
known about sarcopenia at ages 85 and above. Our aims were to look at how common sarcopenia is in this age
group, how many people develop it over time, and whether there are groups of people who are particularly at risk.
How we carried out this research
What we found (continued)
‡ We used information from the Newcastle 85+ Study: in 2006, research
nurses visited 845 people aged 85 in Newcastle / North Tyneside and
then tried to visit them again several times, including in 2009.
‡ Study participants were asked questions including about their health and
lifestyle. Information was also extracted from their GP records.
‡ To check if participants had sarcopenia, we used measurements collected
by the nurses on the participants’ walking speed, how strongly they
could grip and how much of their body weight was muscle (using a set
of scales which pass a weak electrical current).
‡ We used statistics to see if there was evidence that some groups were
more at risk of sarcopenia, including people with memory difficulty
(using a test called the mini-mental state examination or MMSE), and
people with low weight for their height (using body mass index or BMI).
‡ 570 participants did not have sarcopenia in
2006 and the nurses were able to visit 302 of them again in 2009.
‡ 33 participants had developed sarcopenia (approximately 4% per year).
‡ We looked at whether sarcopenia was more likely in different groups as
shown in the graph below. The circle shows how many times higher the
odds of having sarcopenia are in the group shown: a value of 1 means no
higher. The line shows where we think the odds could be in 85 year-olds
generally; if it crosses 1 then there is no clear evidence of increased risk.
‡ As shown having a low weight for your height (BMI), having difficulty
with memory and having done a manual job all increased the odds:
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‡ We could assess whether 719 of the participants had sarcopenia or not.
‡ The diagram shows what percentage of participants had slow walking
speed, weak grip strength and low muscle mass, and the overlap.
‡ 21% had sarcopenia, including 11% with severe sarcopenia:
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What this research suggests and future work
‡ Sarcopenia is common in 85 year-olds, with just over one-fifth affected
‡ People with low weight for their height may be particularly at risk
‡ Current treatments for sarcopenia involve exercises with weights; those
aged 80+ may be unable to do this and trials of medication are ongoing.
This work has recently been published:
Dodds RM et al. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle (2016)
dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcsm.12157
email [email protected]
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the participants, data collection teams, scientists
and funders of the Newcastle 85+ Study. Richard Dodds is funded by an
NIHR Clinical Lectureship in Geriatric Medicine.
The views expressed are those of the author(s)
and not necessarily those of the NHS, the
NIHR or the Department of Health.