ABSTRACT
The risk of sarcopenia was verified in community-dwelling older women with complaints of acute low back pain. The pain index and mobility/balance were compared between patients at risk of sarcopenia and the non-sarcopenic ones. This is a cross-sectional research, subproject of the epidemiological and multicenter study Back Complaints in the Elders (BACE). patients were older women with at least one episode of acute low back pain within six weeks prior to data collection. We evaluated the walking speed (4.6 m), grip strength (Jamar dynamometer), pain index (analog pain scale) and mobility/balance (Timed Up and Go test). Risk of sarcopenia was estimated by percentage measure and comparisons by the Independent Samples t Test. A significance level of 5% was adopted. A total of 322 older women participated in this study. The risk of sarcopenia was 54%, i.e., 173 patients (71.8±5.2 years) were at risk of sarcopenia and 149 (46%) were non-sarcopenic (71.5±5.1 years). There was difference for the pain intensity (p=0.02) and the mobility/balance (p=0.01), given that the ones at risk of sarcopenia were in worse conditions. The results showed risk of sarcopenia among older women with acute low back pain. The latter showed higher pain index and worse mobility/balance, suggesting that sarcopenia, if present in older women with this pain, can influence negatively the functionality.
Keywords
Sarcopenia; Low Back Pain; Aged; Mobility Limitation
