Table 1.

Seven different diagnostic criteria to define sarcopenia

Code	Formula	Cut-off point			Cohort used as reference population	Referencea
		Sarcopenia present	Men	Women
A	ALM/height2	>2 SD below reference population	7.26 kg/m2	5.45 kg/m2	Rosetta Study (1986–1992), 229 non-Hispanic white men and women aged 18–40 years	Baumgartner et al. 1998
B	ALM/height2	Under 20th percentile	7.25 kg/m2	5.67 kg/m2	Health ABC Study (1997/1998), 2,976 men and women 70–79 years old black and white, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Memphis, Tennessee	Delmonico et al. 2007
C	ALM/height2	>2 SD below reference population	6.19 kg/m2	4.73 kg/m2	NHANES survey (1999–2004) white men and women aged 20 years	Kelly et al. 2009
D	Residuals of linear regression of ALM with height and fat mass	Under 20th percentile	NA	NA	NA	Delmonico et al. 2007 b
E (1) (2)	Skeletal lean mass/body mass × 100%	1–2 SD below reference population is class I sarcopenia >2 SD below reference population is class II sarcopenia	37% 31%	28% 22%	NHANES III (1988–1994), 6,414 men and women aged 18–39 years non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black and Mexican-American	Janssen et al. 2002
F (1) (2)	Skeletal lean mass/height2	ROC analysis was used to develop cutpoints associated with moderate (1) and high (2) physical disability	10.75 8.50 kg/m2	6.75 5.75 kg/m2	NHANES III (1988–1994), 4,502 subjects aged 60 years plus, non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black and Mexican-American	Janssen et al. 2004
G	Optimal cutpoint for grip strength, identified in the ROC curve, predicting walking slower than 0.8 m/s	Below optimal cutpoint	30.3 kg	19.3 kg	InCHIANTI (1998–2000), 1,030 subjects aged 20–102 years, Tuscany, Italy	Lauretani et al. 2003

ALM appendicular lean mass, sum measurement of lean mass in all four limbs; ROC receiver operating characteristics; NA not applicable

^aReference describes the formula and cut-off points, unless indicated otherwise

^bReference describes the formula which was applied to the Leiden Longevity Study population