April - June 2020, Volume 16, Issue 2

Gasparik A, Demian MB, Pascanu I

Romanian Translation and Validation of the SARC-F Questionnaire

Acta Endo (Buc) 2020, 16 (2): 216-222
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2020.216

Context. Several studies have addressed the impact of sarcopenia on various health outcomes. As the most critical issue is the early identification of individuals, a short screening tool may help clinicians to simply test for sarcopenia and start early management of the disease. Recently, a simple questionnaire, Sarc-F was provided that may adequately realize this aim. Subjects and Methods. To validate the questionnaire we translated the original Sarc-F according to the recommended methodology. A total of 80 people, aged 65+ were evaluated for sarcopenia. Muscle mass, strength, and physical performance were measured. Volunteers completed the Sarc-F as well as other two questionnaires. Discriminative power, reliability, construct validity analyses, specificity, sensitivity, negative and positive predictive value evaluations were made. Results. A good discriminative power and internal consistency were found. With the functional sarcopenia diagnostic criteria the test demonstrates a high specificity (84%). The positive and negative predictive values were: 78% and 77%. Using the more conservative diagnostic criteria the negative predictive value was: 85.4%, sufficient to rule out those not at risk of having sarcopenia and eliminate the need for further investigations. Conclusions. A valid Romanian Sarc-F questionnaire is now available to simply detect patients at risk/no risk of sarcopenia.

Keywords: screening, sarcopenia, muscle mass, older adults.

Correspondence: Monica-Beáta Demián, 1 Decembrie 1918, bl.4, sc.C,ap.7, Sfantu Gheorghe, Covasna, 520085, Romania, E-mail: demianbeti@gmail.com