article · Nursing Reports
A cross-sectional study of 320 older outpatients aged 60 and over across four public hospitals in Egypt evaluated the prevalence of an operationally defined sarcopenia phenotype. Using a practical definition based on calf circumference alongside low handgrip strength or low gait speed, the study identified the phenotype in 34.1 percent of participants. The occurrence rose markedly with age, from 2.7 percent among individuals aged 60 to 74 years to 91.6 percent among those aged 85 and older. Individuals meeting the definition showed higher descriptive levels of nutritional vulnerability, dependence in daily living activities, food insecurity, polypharmacy, and recent hospitalisation. The operational approach helps detect a clinically vulnerable outpatient group to support nursing and multidisciplinary assessments, though proxy measures and the study design mean findings remain descriptive rather than causal.
Sarcopenia significantly threatens physical independence and general health in older populations. By showing that practical, low-cost physical measurements such as calf circumference, grip strength, and gait speed can flag vulnerable individuals in outpatient clinics, this work highlights straightforward pathways for healthcare providers to detect older adults at risk of malnutrition and functional decline.
The findings could inform early-stage screening protocols or digital assessment tools for geriatric nurses and outpatient clinics seeking low-cost, proxy-based methods to identify physical vulnerability. Because the study is descriptive early-stage research using proxy markers rather than diagnostic confirmation, it remains distant from commercialisation and requires further validation before deployment in clinical products or standardised health programmes.
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Background/Objectives: Sarcopenia can compromise mobility and self-care. This study estimated the prevalence of an operationally defined sarcopenia phenotype among older Egyptian outpatients and described characteristics relevant to nursing assessment; Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory framed interpretation but was not tested. Methods: This cross-sectional study consecutively recruited 320 adults aged ≥60 years from outpatient clinics at four randomly selected public hospitals in El-Beheira Governorate (August 2024–January 2025). The operational definition, based on the EWGSOP 2010 framework, combined calf circumference <31 cm as a pragmatic muscle-mass proxy with low handgrip strength and/or gait speed ≤ 0.8 m/s. Nutrition and functional independence were assessed using the BMI-based MNA-SF and Lawton-Brody IADL scale. Primary analyses comprised descriptive summaries and Wilson 95% confidence intervals; exploratory Firth-penalized logistic regression models adjusted for age and sex were sensitivity analyses. Results: The phenotype was present in 109/320 participants (34.1%; 95% CI, 29.1–39.4%). Prevalence was 2.7% at ages 60–74 years, 16.8% at 75–84 years, and 91.6% at ≥85 years. Nutritional vulnerability, IADL dependence, food insecurity, polypharmacy, and recent hospitalization were descriptively more common among participants meeting the definition. Adjusted models retained several associations but yielded an unstable reversed nutritional estimate and wide confidence intervals. Conclusions: The operational phenotype identified a clinically vulnerable outpatient subgroup relevant to nursing and interdisciplinary assessment. The proxy-based definition, clinic sampling, extreme age imbalance, and cross-sectional design preclude confirmation of sarcopenia and independent-association, prognostic, or causal inference.
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DOI: 10.3390/nursrep16090326
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