SARC-F Sarcopenia Screen

SARC-F is a brief, five-item self-report questionnaire for case-finding of sarcopenia — the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function — in older adults. Introduced by Theodore Malmstrom and John Morley in 2013, its name is an acronym for the five domains it assesses: Strength, Assistance in walking, Rising from a chair, Climbing stairs, and Falls. Each item is scored 0 to 2, giving a total from 0 to 10, and a score of 4 or higher signals likely sarcopenia and risk of poor functional outcomes. Because it requires no equipment, no clinician, and under a minute to complete, SARC-F is recommended by major consensus groups (including the European and Asian sarcopenia working groups) as the first step in sarcopenia case-finding, to be confirmed by muscle-strength and mass measurement.