When women get older, especially after age 60, they lose muscle mass, otherwise known as sarcopenia. Muscle loss has an impact on strength, balance, and functioning on a day-to-day basis, which raises the risk for falls and other medical complications. Physicians and healthcare providers need accurate methods to measure muscle mass to detect such complications early enough in order to implement sufficient treatment.
Currently, the best way to measure muscle mass is using advanced technology like DXA (Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry), but they are costly, not always available in every clinic or region, and maybe not practical to use on a day-to-day basis—especially in low-resource settings.
To solve this puzzle, the researchers in Brazil came up with a new, inexpensive, and simple method to estimate appendicular skeletal muscle mass (i.e., muscle in legs and arms) from simple-to-obtain body measurements—such as a person’s height, weight, arm and leg girth. Such measurements are referred to as anthropometric measurements.
They tested this new model with a group of 199 Brazilian older women and validated its results with the gold-standard DXA. They established that their model was a reliable predictor of muscle mass and thus a valuable surrogate when DXA is unavailable. The model will prove particularly valuable for community health workers or those in resource-limited clinics.
This new instrument makes possible quicker and cheaper muscle testing, enabling earlier diagnosis of muscle loss, more effective monitoring of change with age, and more knowledgeable medical decision-making—ultimately helping older women maintain independence and a better quality of life.
Full text: Carlos Aiello Ribeiro, Lorena Rosa, Jorge Mota, Nádia Lima da Silva, Paulo Farinatti, A Novel Anthropometry-Based Model to Estimate Appendicular Muscle Mass in Brazilian Older Women, Journal of Aging Research (2025). https://doi.org/10.1155/jare/1053086