A leaky gut contributes to reduced sarcopenia-related quality of life (SarQoL) in geriatric older adults

The sarcopenia quality-of-life (SarQoL) questionnaire is designed to evaluate the quality of life of sarcopenic patients. A pathological increase in intestinal permeability leads to several systemic diseases, but its contribution to SarQoL is unknown.

We recruited controls (n = 84, age = 74.6 ± 4.9 years) and sarcopenic (n = 55, age = 76.1 ± 4.2 years) men for validating and adapting a Pashto version of SarQoL. We measured the scores for seven domains of SarQoL, body composition, and handgrip strength (HGS). We also measured plasma zonulin as a marker of increased intestinal permeability.

The Pashto SarQoL exhibited adequate discriminative ability, construct validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability, without exhibiting the floor and ceiling effect. Sarcopenic patients had higher plasma zonulin and lower scores on SarQoL domains for physical and mental health, locomotion, body composition, functionality, activities of daily living, leisure, and fear, and cumulative SarQoL scores than controls. Plasma zonulin exhibited significant coefficients of determination with Pashto SarQoL domains for locomotion (r² = 0.217), functionality (r² = 0.101), activities of daily living (r² = 0.302), and cumulative SarQoL scores (r² = 0.168). We also found high efficacies of zonulin in diagnosing low scores for functionality (AUC = 0.785, 95% C.I = 0.708–0.863), activities of daily living (AUC = 0.785, 95% C.I = 0.708–0.863), and cumulative SarQoL scores (AUC = 0.821, 95% C.I = 0.751–0.891).

Altogether, SarQoL appears reliable in measuring the quality of life in sarcopenic patients. A leaky gut has a potential contribution to reduced SarQoL in sarcopenia.