Table 5.

Descriptive statistics between women with presence or absence of low ALM applying the new Canadian and the FNIH cut‐points, in the Canadian longitudinal study on aging cohort

Women	Canadian cut‐points			FNIH cut‐points
	Non‐sarcopenic (n = 3767)	Sarcopenic (n = 596)	P a	Non‐sarcopenic (n = 4013)	Sarcopenic (n = 350)	P a
Prevalence, %	86.3	13.7		92.0	8.0
Age, year	72.4 ± 5.5	73.6 ± 5.8	<0.001	72.5 ± 5.5	72.9 ± 5.7	0.294
Caucasian, %	97.5	97.3	0.754c	97.8	94.3	<0.001c
Weight, kg	72.3 ± 12.9	56.0 ± 7.0	<0.01	69.8 ± 13.4	74.0 ± 14.0	<0.001
BMI, kg/m2	28.3 ± 4.9	22.2 ± 2.7	<0.001	27.0 ± 4.9	32.1 ± 5.4	<0.001
Nutritional risk (SCREEN II‐AB; 0–48)	39.0 ± 5.9	38.9 ± 6.1	0.765	39.2 ± 5.8	36.7 ± 6.4	<0.001
Medication number (0–11)	1.0 ± 1.0	1.0 ± 1.0	0.467	1.0 ± 1.0	1.5 ± 1.1	<0.001
PASE score (0–629)	112 ± 53	106 ± 49	0.035	112 ± 53	96 ± 51	<0.001
Body composition
ALM, kg	17.8 ± 2.6	13.6 ± 1.3	<0.001	17.4 ± 2.8	15.3 ± 2.6	<0.001
ALM index, kg/m2	6.96 ± 0.87	5.36 ± 0.30	<0.001	6.75 ± 0.98	6.67 ± 1.06	0.120
Total fat mass, kg	30.1 ± 8.8	21.9 ± 5.5	<0.001	28.5 ± 8.7	35.4 ± 9.0	<0.001
Muscle strength
Maximal handgrip strength, kg	24.3 ± 5.1	21.5 ± 4.7	<0.001	24.2 ± 5.1	20.8 ± 4.5	<0.001b
Physical performance
Gait speed, m/s	0.92 ± 0.18	0.92 ± 0.19	0.932b	0.93 ± 0.18	0.84 ± 0.17	<0.001b
TUG, s	10.0 ± 2.0	10.0 ± 2.0	0.802	9.9 ± 2.0	10.9 ± 2.4	<0.001
Chair time average, s	2.9 ± 0.8	3.0 ± 0.9	0.909	2.9 ± 0.8	2.9 ± 0.9	0.604
Balance, s	24.9 ± 22.2	26.2 ± 22.6	0.172	25.9 ± 22.4	15.4 ± 17.7	<0.001
BMI‐adjusted physical performance score	−0.10 ± 2.14	−0.68 ± 2.25	<0.001b	−0.14 ± 2.14	−0.73 ± 2.30	<0.001b

Values are mean ± SD. ALM, appendicular lean mass; BMI, body mass index; FNIH. Foundation for the National Institute of Health; PASE, Physical Activity Scale for Elderly; SCREEN II‐AB, abbreviated Seniors in the Community Risk Evaluation for Eating and Nutrition, version II; TUG, timed up‐and‐go.

^aFrom Mann–Whitney U test unless otherwise specified.

^bIndependent t‐test.

^cChi‐square test.