Does Locomotive Syndrome, Associated with Sarcopenia or otherwise, Influence Quality of Life in Individuals Aged over 80 years? Third Wave of the LOCOMOV Project

Abstract

Introduction: Locomotion is a determinant of intrinsic capacity ofolder people and can be limited by dysfunction in locomotory organs,characterizing Locomotive Syndrome (LoS). Knowledge on locomotiveproblems and sarcopenia, and their interface with quality of life, in theoldest old in the literature is scarce.Objective: To evaluate the correlation between LoS and sarcopenia andtheir influence on quality of life in oldest old.Methods: A cross-sectional study of an observational, descriptive andanalytical epidemiological survey in independent older adults aged 80and over from São Paulo, Brazil and who participated in the third waveof the LOCOMOV Project, was carried out. Sociodemographic data,comorbidities, functioning in activities of daily living, physical functioning,quality of life, and presence of sarcopenia and LoS were assessed. Thestatistical analyses included the Test-for-Comparing-Two-Proportions,Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, the chi-Square test and Student´s t-test.Results: Thirty oldest old with a mean age of 89.1 years were evaluated.The prevalence of LoS was high (53.3%) and correlated significantly withchronic pain (p-value 0.024), worse performance on the SPPB and Gaitspeed (p-value <0.001). Sarcopenia was not correlated with LoS, but worsequality of life on the physical domain was significantly associated with LoS(p-value <0.001) regardless of the presence of sarcopenia.Conclusions: LoS was highly prevalent among the oldest old studied andnegatively impacted their quality of life, regardless of the presence ofsarcopenia.