Quality of life and fatigue in elderly patients with sarcopenia

Objective: to assess the quality of life (QoL) using general and special questionnaires and to identify the relationship between fatigue and sarcopenia (SP) in elderly and senile people.

Patients and methods. The cohort study included 230 patients, including 177 women (77%) and 53 men (23%) over 65 years old (median age 75 [68; 79] years). The presence of SP was determined according to the criteria of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2, 2018). QoL was studied using the general questionnaires EQ-5D, SF-36 and a special questionnaire SarQoL, the level of fatigue – using the FACIT-F questionnaire. To assess the possibility of using the FACIT-F scale for SP screening, its sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic accuracy, positive and negative predictive value were determined, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (ROC analysis) was constructed, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was calculated.

Results and discussion. The assessment of QoL using the EQ-5D and SF-36 questionnaires did not reveal significant differences between the groups of patients with and without SP (p>0.05). When analyzing the state of health in the study cohort using the special SarQoL questionnaire, the overall indicator was 63.12±18.83 points, while in patients with SP it was significantly lower than in patients without SP (50.65±14.23 and 75,10±14.46 points, respectively; p<0.001). The mean score for all domains was also lower in the presence of SP than in its absence (p<0.001).

The level of fatigue on the FACIT-F scale ranged from 10 to 52 points and averaged 32.5 [29.1; 35.3] points, while in patients with SP the overall score was lower than in elderly people without SP (25.1 [22.13; 29.23] and 39.8 [36.4; 42.4] points respectively; p<0.001). In patients with severe fatigue, SP was diagnosed 4.6 times (95% confidence interval, CI 2.80–7.57) more often than in those without it (p<0.001). Fatigue was associated with senile age, underweight, falls in the previous year, weak muscle strength, low SPPB test scores and an appendicular muscle mass index, CRP >10 mg/L (p<0.05).

The possibility of using the FACIT-F questionnaire for screening patients with SP was evaluated. Its sensitivity reached 76%, specificity – 73%, positive predictive value – 53%, and negative predictive value – 88%, diagnostic accuracy – 74%. The area under the ROC-curve (AUC) was 0.726 (95% CI 0.627–0.826; p<0.0001).

Conclusion. It has been shown that the general questionnaires EQ-5D and SF-36 do not reflect the true QoL impairment in SP. A significant deterioration in the state of health in elderly people with SP can be identified by a special SarQol questionnaire. The FACIT-F fatigue scale can also be used to screening in SP.

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