Health habits, lifestyles, and comorbidities associated with sarcopenia in the older people

Introduction: Sarcopenia is a loss of muscle mass and function that affects the elderly and impairs their quality of life. Objective: To establish the association between sarcopenia, health habits, lifestyles, and comorbidities in older adults. Methods: Adopting a quantitative, descriptive-correlational, and observational cross-sectional design, the research involved 65 participants aged over 60 (71.83±7.31). To assess health habits, lifestyles, and comorbidities, questionnaires addressed alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity levels, sedentary behavior, and history of peripheral vascular disease, acute myocardial infarction, type 2 diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and pain. Sarcopenia was evaluated using criteria from the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2). Chi-Square test was used to associate the presence of sarcopenia with health habits, lifestyles, and comorbidities. Results: Revealed a significant association between sarcopenia and type 2 diabetes mellitus (p= 0.002), physical activity level (p= 0.004), and sedentary behavior (p= 0.001). Conversely, no significant associations were found between sarcopenia and acute myocardial infarction (p= 0.356), peripheral vascular disease (p= 0.098), high blood pressure (p= 0.724), hypercholesterolemia (p= 0.653), smoking habit (p= 0.267), alcohol consumption (p= 0.674), upper limb pain (p= 0.343), lower limb pain (p= 0.260), or spine pain (p= 0.418). Conclusions: That there is a significant association between sarcopenia and diabetes mellitus type 2, physical inactivity, and sedentary behavior in older people.