Definitions of Sarcopenia

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the relevance of muscle function was so clear that different lines of action were proposed, including the use of different terms to name the condition. The European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People suggested dividing sarcopenia into categories, and sarcopenia staging to reflect the severity of the condition. Sarcopenia and obesity coexist frequently in the so-called sarcopenic obesity. Frailty, cachexia, and malnutrition are conditions that share some elements with sarcopenia: they are frequent in old age, predict adverse outcomes, and include in some way low muscle mass within their definitions, which may lead clinicians into problems when trying to sort out which condition predominates in a given patient. Low muscle mass is included in the most widely used definitions of cachexia, which also consider the role of low muscle strength.