Chronic inflammation associated with ageing contributes to sarcopenia-related risk of falls and multimorbidity. The SARC-F questionnaire, based on strength, ambulation, rising from a chair, climbing stairs and falling, and MSRA (mini sarcopenia risk assessment) are validated tools to identify sarcopenia in elderly people. Here, we investigated whether SARC-F and MSRA questionnaires capture higher rates of self-reported functional difficulties and falls in young individuals living with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). JIA patients and healthy participants were invited to complete an online survey including the SARC-F, MSRA-5, and MSRA-7 questionnaires. Additional questions explored their nutrition and exercise habits. We invited 101 healthy participants and 41 patients with JIA. Of the 41 JIA respondents, the median age was 23 years and 25 (61%) were female. According to the SARC-F, MSRA-5, and MSRA-7 questionnaires, 20%, 47%, and 33% screened positive according to the respective threshold criteria. Around 27% of JIA patients reported at least one fall in the past year compared to around 33% of healthy participants. However, 20% of JIA participants reported more than four falls in the past year in contrast to 4% of healthy participants. Furthermore, 44% of JIA participants reported difficulty climbing stairs and 17% reported limited ability to walk one kilometer. SARC-F identified a higher proportion of young adults with JIA reporting functional difficulties and recurrent falls compared with healthy controls. MSRA-5 showed differences in some risk-factor domains. However, without validation against objective measures of muscle mass, strength, or performance, these questionnaires primarily reflect multifactorial JIA-related musculoskeletal impairment rather than sarcopenia per se. Further studies with gold-standard sarcopenia assessments are needed.
Ahmad et al. (Tue,) studied this question.