Key words: Limitation of mobility; sarcopenia; elderly; hospital

Sarcopenia is an important public health problem that affects mainly elders, and has negative consequences, such as disability and even death. Due to the lack of studies evaluating sarcopenia in elderly persons hospitalized in Brazil, the aim of the present study was to describe the frequency of sarcopenia and associated factors among elders in a hospital in the city of Salvador - Brazil. This cross-sectional study included 110 hospitalized elderly patients in a multi-specialty hospital in Salvador-BA, Brazil. Inclusion criteria: were elders aged ≥60 years between the first and fifth day of hospitalization; who were able to walk without external assistance; with medical permission to walk, and who did not take vasoactive and inotropic drugs. The diagnosis of sarcopenia was determined by combining the reduction in skeletal muscle mass with muscle weakness (women, <20 kg; men, <30 kg) and/or poor physical performance (gait speed ≤0.8 m/s). To obtain reduced skeletal muscle mass, the skeletal muscle mass index ≤6.37 kg/m2 for women and ≤8.90 kg/m2 for men was used. Cognitive function, Charlson index, admission profile (clinical and surgical), smoking, falls suffered in the last year and physical inactivity prior to admission were also evaluated. The frequency of sarcopenia was described in percentages with their respective confidence intervals and logistic regression was performed for multivariate analysis of factors associated with sarcopenia. Among the 110 patients included, the frequency of sarcopenia was 21.8%, with 10.0% being of the severe type. There was a predominance of clinical profile (59.1%), such as heart disease (20.0%), pneumonia (13.6%) and skin infections (9.1%), with a Charlson index of 5.4 ± 1.8. The factors associated with sarcopenia were age (OR = 1.14; 95% CI = 1.06 to 1.23), clinical profile on admission (OR = 5.15; 95% CI = 1.16–22.9) and smoking (OR = 7.8; 95% CI = 1.53–39.9). The frequency of sarcopenia in elderly hospitalized patients was high (1 in 5 elderly) and anthropometric equation can be a viable and inexpensive alternative to screening and programming intervention in this population.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is now a major public health concern; deaths attributable to COPD in Latin America have increased by 65.0% in the last decade. This study was aimed at evaluating COPD prevalence and associated factors in adults (> 40 years) living in Greater Metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil. The study is part of the Proyecto Latinoamericano de Investigación en Obstrucción Pulmonar (The PLATINO Project), a multi-center survey on COPD burden in Latin America, with São Paulo as the first center where the project has been carried out. A population-based sample was selected in multiple stages. Spirometry tests were performed in each subject pre- and post-bronchodilator and COPD was mainly defined as the ratio of forced expiratory volume to forced vital capacity below 70.0% (fixed ratio definition). Other spirometric criteria were also used for the diagnosis of COPD. COPD prevalence was 15.8% (95%CI: 13.5-18.1) using the fixed ratio definition. COPD was positively associated with age and smoking and inversely with body mass index. Utilization of different COPD spirometry criteria resulted in different percentages of COPD, but similar associated factors.

OBEJETIVO: O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a aplicabilidade da versão modificada do Questionário do Hospital Saint George na Doença Respiratória. Esta versão possui adaptação nas respostas de algumas perguntas com duplas negativas, substituindo as respostas "sim" e "não" por "concordo" e "não concordo", com o intuito de facilitar a compreensão destas questões, e o período de recordação de sintomas passando de um ano para três meses. MÉTODOS: Foram avaliados 30 pacientes com diagnóstico de doença pulmonar obstrutiva crônica, estáveis clinicamente. Foram aplicados o Questionário do Hospital Saint George na Doença Respiratória e a sua versão modificada em duas situações, separadas por quinze dias. RESULTADOS: Todos os indivíduos apresentaram alteração da qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde. A comparação de médias das pontuações dos domínios dos dois questionários mostrou maior alteração no domínio Sintomas do questionário original em relação a sua versão modificada. Os demais domínios e a pontuação total não apresentaram diferenças significativas. Todos os domínios apresentaram correlações significativas: Sintomas, r = 0,71 (p < 0,001); Atividade, r = 0,75 (p < 0,001); Impacto, r = 0,73 (p < 0,001) e Total r = 0,86 (p <0,001). CONCLUSÃO: A versão do SGRQm possui propriedades de mensuração de qualidade de vida semelhantes à versão original, porém deve-se escolher qual o melhor tempo de recordação de sintomas a ser utilizado na avaliação.

The present cross-sectional, population-based study was designed to evaluate the performance of the FEV1/FEV6 ratio for the detection of airway-obstructed subjects compared to the FEV1/FVC <0.70 fixed ratio test, as well as the lower limit of normality (LLN) for 1000 subjects (3)40 years of age in the metropolitan area of São Paulo, SP, Brazil. After the exclusion of 37 (3.7%) spirometries, a total of 963 pre-bronchodilator (BD) and 918 post-BD curves were constructed. The majority of the post-BD curves (93.1%) were of very good quality and achieved grade A (762 curves) or B (93 curves). The FEV1/FEV6 and FEV1/FVC ratios were highly correlated (r(2) = 0.92, P < 0.000). Two receiver operator characteristic curves were constructed in order to express the imbalance between the sensitivity and specificity of the FEV1/FEV6 ratio compared to two FEV1/FVC cut-off points for airway obstruction: equal to 70 (area under the curve = 0.98, P < 0.0001) and the LLN (area under the curve = 0.97, P < 0.0001), in the post-BD curves. According to an FEV1/FVC <0.70, the cut-off point for the FEV1/FEV6 ratio with the highest sum for sensitivity and specificity was 0.75. The FEV1/FEV6 ratio can be considered to be a good alternative to the FEV1/FVC ratio for the diagnosis of airway obstruction, both using a fixed cut-off point or below the LLN as reference. The FEV1/FEV6 ratio has the additional advantage of being an easier maneuver for the subjects and for the lung function technicians, providing a higher reproducibility than traditional spirometry maneuvers.