OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between sarcopenia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in elderly patients with diabetes using the Japanese version of the simple 5-item questionnaire (SARC-F-J).

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Community hospital in Japan.

PARTICIPANTS

Subjects were people with diabetes aged 65 years and older being treated on an outpatient basis at the Ise Red Cross Hospital.

MEASUREMENTS

We used the Japanese version of the self-administered cognitive test Test Your Memory (TYM-J) to measure MCI and the self-administered questionnaire SARC-F-J, consisting of 5 items, to evaluate sarcopenia. We conducted a multiple logistic regression analysis with MCI as the dependent variable and sarcopenia as the explanatory variable to calculate the odds ratio of sarcopenia in association with MCI.

RESULTS

A total of 250 cases (150 men and 100 women) were included in our study. The prevalence of sarcopenia in this sample was 19.5% and that of MCI was 40.3%. The adjusted odds ratio of sarcopenia in association with MCI was 2.96 (95% confidence interval, 1.09-7.70, P = .032).

CONCLUSION

A statistically significant association was found between sarcopenia and MCI in an assessment of elderly patients with diabetes using the SARC-F-J.