Sarcopenia and mild cognitive impairment among elderly adults: The first longitudinal evidence from CHARLS

The association between sarcopenia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among elderly adults in China remains unclear. The present study aimed to examine the association based on a nationally representative large-scale survey.

The study used two waves of data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2015 and 2018. All subjects met the inclusion criteria were classified based on Asia Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 criteria. Aging-associated cognitive decline is used to define MCI, and cognitive function is measured based on four dimensions: orientation, computation, memory, and drawing. OLS and logistic regression model were conducted to analyse the cross-sectional association between sarcopenia and different cognitive functions. Logistic regression model was conducted to analyse the longitudinal association between sarcopenia and MCI.