Prevalence and Risk Factors of Self-Reported Sarcopenia and Its Association With Multimorbidity in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Cross-sectional design cannot show that multimorbidity caused sarcopenia or that screening changed outcomes. Convenience sample from one rural county in South Korea may not apply to other countries or urban populations. Participants who could not walk independently, had neuromuscular disorders, lived in nursing homes or had cognitive impairment were excluded, so findings do not apply to those groups. Sarcopenia was self-reported by SARC-F score, not measured by objective muscle strength, mass or performance tests. Multimorbidity was based on participant-reported chronic diseases, with no severity, disease combinations or complete medical record data. Perceived health and physical activity were self-reported and may be affected by recall bias. Logistic regression did not control for diet, genetic factors or other unmeasured confounders.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that having multiple chronic diseases causes sarcopenia. This was a cross-sectional self-report study, so it can only show association at one time point and did not test any intervention.