Yang Chunhua, Ye Tengfei, Gao Yan
Jinzhou Medical University Graduate Training Base, the 960th Hospital of People's Liberation Army Joint Logistics Support Force, Jinzhou, Liaoning, China.
Department of Geriatrics, Ruijin Hospital Lu Wan Branch, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
PLoS One. 2025 Jun 12;20(6):e0326193. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326193. eCollection 2025.
Falling has become a significant factor in the mortality of elderly people. Little is known about whether sarcopenia can be a risk factor for falls in older adults. This study aims to assess the association between sarcopenia and falls among older Chinese according to the updated diagnostic guidelines of the Asian Working Group on Sarcopenia 2019 (AWGS 2019). We used data from the 2011 baseline and 2015 follow-up survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). This study examined the relationship between sarcopenia status and falls through cross-sectional analysis. Cox proportional hazards regression models were conducted to investigate the effect of sarcopenia status on subsequent falls, with the report of hazard ratio (HR). A total of 5,337 participants aged at least 60 years (51.3% men; mean age 67.6 ± 6.3) were enrolled in this analysis from the CHARLS 2011. The study revealed that the prevalence of falls was significantly higher in the possible sarcopenia and sarcopenia groups compared to the no sarcopenia group, with rates of 15.8%, 19.4%, and 24%, respectively. Logistic regression was utilized to investigate the association between sarcopenia and falls. Both possible sarcopenia (OR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.03-1.45) and sarcopenia (OR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.23-2.19) were positively associated with higher odds of falls (all p < 0.05). During the 4 years of follow-up, 1490 cases (29.9%) with incident falls were identified. In the longitudinal analysis, individuals with diagnosed sarcopenia (HR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.11-1.57) were more likely to have new-onset incident falls than their no-sarcopenia peers. Sarcopenia in the elderly is an independent risk factor for falls, with health screening and intervention reducing fall risk and improving quality of life.
跌倒已成为老年人死亡的一个重要因素。关于肌肉减少症是否会成为老年人跌倒的风险因素，目前所知甚少。本研究旨在根据2019年亚洲肌肉减少症工作组（AWGS 2019）的最新诊断指南，评估中国老年人中肌肉减少症与跌倒之间的关联。我们使用了中国健康与养老追踪调查（CHARLS）2011年基线调查和2015年随访调查的数据。本研究通过横断面分析研究了肌肉减少症状态与跌倒之间的关系。采用Cox比例风险回归模型来研究肌肉减少症状态对后续跌倒的影响，并报告风险比（HR）。本分析从CHARLS 2011中纳入了总共5337名年龄至少60岁的参与者（男性占51.3%；平均年龄67.6±6.3岁）。研究表明，与无肌肉减少症组相比，可能存在肌肉减少症组和肌肉减少症组的跌倒患病率显著更高，分别为15.8%、19.4%和24%。采用逻辑回归来研究肌肉减少症与跌倒之间的关联。可能存在肌肉减少症（OR：1.22，95%CI：1.03-1.45）和肌肉减少症（OR：1.64，95%CI：1.23-2.19）均与跌倒几率较高呈正相关（所有p<0.05）。在4年的随访期间，共确定了1490例（29.9%）新发跌倒病例。在纵向分析中，被诊断为肌肉减少症的个体（HR：1.32，95%CI：1.11-1.57）比无肌肉减少症的同龄人更有可能发生新发跌倒。老年人的肌肉减少症是跌倒的独立危险因素，进行健康筛查和干预可降低跌倒风险并改善生活质量。
