Sarcopenia is the process of continuous loss of agerelated muscle mass, which can affect or be
influenced by nutritional status, as well as predisposing functional limitation in the elderly due
to the impairment of physical qualities necessary for the performance of basic activities of daily
living. In this study, the investigation of this process is based on the objective of correlating
nutritional status and functional capacity with the presence of sarcopenia in the elderly. For this
purpose, a crosssectional study was carried out with 156 elderly people treated at the outpatient
clinic of a teaching hospital. The criteria of the Euroepan Working Group on Sarcopenia in
Older Persons were used to verify sarcopenia. Sociodemographic data were collected using a
questionnaire, nutritional status assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment, and functional
capacity assessed using the Katz index. Descriptive statistical analyses and correlation between
variables were applied, and the significance alpha level of 5% (p ≤0.05) was adopted. The
prevalence of sarcopenia was 19.9% (n=31). The elderly had nutritional status classified as
normal (79.5%, n=124) and were independent (98.1%, n=153). The results showed correlation
of sarcopenia with age (p=0.0004, r=0.2), body mass index (p<0.0001, r= 0.3), arm
circumference (p=0.0005, r= 0.2), and with calf circumference (p=<0.0001, r=0.4). There were
no significant results between sarcopenia correlation with nutritional status and functional
capacity (p>0.05).
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