Longitudinal changes in muscle power compared to muscle strength and mass

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The study reports longitudinal changes in grip strength, muscle mass and muscle power of lower extremities. The aim is to identify early muscular changes to improve the diagnosis and treatment of sarcopenia. METHODS: . Longitudinal changes were analysed using paired t-tests by age group and sex. Differences between groups in terms of the annual change were tested by Analysis of Variance and the Dunnett's test. Comparisons between the variables were performed using one sample t-tests. RESULTS: Six-year changes were determined in 318 randomly selected healthy participants aged 20-90 years from Berlin. 2LJP declined significantly earlier in 20-39 years old women (-3.70 W/kg) and men (-5.97 W/kg, both p<0.001). This is an absolute annual decline of -0.46 W/kg in females and -0.75 W/kg in males. In the oldest age group, 2LJP showed the highest absolute annual loss with -0.99 W/kg in women and -0.88 W/kg in men. 2LJP was significantly different compared to all variables of muscle mass and strength (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The results underline the importance of assessing muscle power using 2LJP during aging.