Case for Validated Instead of Standard Cut-Offs for SARC-CalF

Excerpt

We read with interest the study by Bahat et. al. which concluded that addition of calf circumference item to SARC-F (SARC-CalF) improved the specificity and diagnostic accuracy but did not improve sensitivity in a community-dwelling Turkish older adult population sample (1). These findings run counter to the findings of earlier studies which consistently demonstrated that the SARC-CalF improved the sensitivity and overall diagnostic accuracy of SARC-F albeit with a slight tradeoff in specificity (2-5). We propose that these discrepant findings go beyond differences in sarcopenia prevalence to reflect, inter alia, differences in participant characteristics and variation in study methods which may have implication on the appropriate choice of cut-offs for SARC-CalF. …