sarcopenia is associated with cognitive impairment and depression in elderly korean women

Background: sarcopenia has been implicated in the increased risk for cognitive impairment and depression associated with aging. in this cross-sectional study, we investigated the relationship of sarcopenia with cogni-tive impairment (mci) and depression in a sample of 201 community-dwelling korean women (mean age of 74.0±6.8 yr) between 2014 and 2015. methods: the korean version of mini-mental state examination and the center for epidemiologic studies de-pression scale was used to assess cognitive performance and depression, respectively. grp strength was meas-ured with a dynamometer. demographics, body composition, education, alcohol consumption, and history of cardiovascular diseases were assessed as covariates. results: odds ratio (or) and 95% confidence interval (95% ci) of mci and depression were calculated ac-cording to sarcopenia status. compared to non-sarcopenic, pre-sarcopenic and sarcopenic women had the ors of 2.160 (95% ci of 0.840 - 5.554, p=0.030) and of 5.493 (95% ci of 1.854 - 16.270, p=0.002) for mci. the or of pre-sarcopenia for mci remained significant (p=0.030) even after adjustments for age, body mass index (bmi), lean body mass, and education, while the or of sarcopenia for mci was no longer significant (p=0.084) when adjusted for the covariates. compared to non-sarcopenic, pre-sarcopenic and sarcopenic women had the ors of 3.750 (95% ci of 1.137 - 12.370, p=0.030) and of 4.687 (95% ci of 1.127 -19.505, p=0.034) for depression. the ors of pre-sarcopenia and sarcopenia for depression remained statistically sig-nificant (p=0.020 and p=0.042, respectively) even after adjusted for the covariates conclusion: sarcopenia was significantly associated with mci and depression in otherwise healthy community dwelling elderly korean women.