Mohammad Reza Shadmand Foumani Moghadam - BSc. in Nutrition Sciences, Varastegan Institute for Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Sharif Etemadi - BSc. in Nutrition Sciences, Varastegan Institute for Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Reyhaneh Bakhshipour - BSc. in Nutrition Sciences, Varastegan Institute for Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Mohammad Amushahi - BSc. in Nutrition Sciences, Varastegan Institute for Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Khashayar Khanizadeh - BSc. in Nutrition Sciences, Varastegan Institute for Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Parnian Pezeshki - Nutrition department, Varastegan Institute for Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Background: Sarcopenia is a syndrome characterized by progressive and generalized loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength. Sarcopenia is associated with frailty and disability among the elderly and imposes significant costs on health care system. Several studies have been done about sarcopenia in Iran which is one of the largest countries of the Middle East that faces a fast growing elderly population. But according to our knowledge there is no data about sarcopenia and its related factors in Mashhad, north east of Iran, so the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of sarcopenia and its association with socioeconomic status among the elderly adults of Mashhad.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 387 elderly men and women over 55 years in Mashhad city. Sarcopenia was defined according to the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) algorithm. The skeletal muscle mass was assessed using BIA (inbody270). Muscle strength and muscle performance were assessed according to hand grip strength and 4-m usual walking gait speed test. All the analysis was done by SPSS version 22 and P value <0.05 was considered significant Results: The overall prevalence values of pre-sarcopenia, sarcopenia, and severe-sarcopenia were 7%, 7.5% and 8.2% respectively. There was the significant difference between income statute, work types, retired statute, and gender and meal intake frequency per day between sarcopenia categories (p value<0.05).Conclusions: The prevalence of overall Sarcopenia was relatively high in this population and there was a significant difference between socioeconomic statuses in the sarcopenia categories.

Sarcopenia, Mashhad, Prevalence, Muscle mass loss