Psychomotor Speed and Fall Risk in Older Adults with Sarcopenia and Frailty: A Cross-Sectional Study

Kilaitė, J ORCID: 0000-0002-9257-7055, Dadelienė, R, Ginevičienė, V ORCID: 0000-0003-4956-6307, Pranckevičienė, E ORCID: 0000-0003-1365-3564, Mastavičiūtė, A, Jamontaitė, IE, Urnikytė, A ORCID: 0000-0002-0764-0946, Ahmetov, II ORCID: 0000-0002-6335-4020 and Alekna, V ORCID: 0000-0003-3305-0023 (2025) Psychomotor Speed and Fall Risk in Older Adults with Sarcopenia and Frailty: A Cross-Sectional Study. Medicina Lithuania, 61 (4). ISSN 1010-660X

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Abstract

Background and Objectives: Information on how psychomotor speed is associated with the risk of falling is scarce, even in older adults. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the relationship between falls and psychomotor speed in older adults with sarcopenia and frailty. Materials and Methods: A total of 204 subjects (aged 83 (77–87) years) participated in this study: 161 women (78.9%) and 43 men (21.1%). The history of falls was assessed by asking whether the subject had experienced a fall in the past 12 months. Psychomotor speed was evaluated by reaction time and frequency of movement. Sarcopenia was diagnosed based on the EWGSOP2 criteria. Frailty was confirmed if the participants met ≥3 criteria according to the Fried frailty criteria. The relationship between falls and psychomotor speed was measured using partial correlations. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess if psychomotor speed had an impact on falls. Results: Sarcopenia was confirmed in 93 (45.58%) and frailty in 91 (44.6%) subjects. Both sarcopenia and frailty were present in 62 (30.39%) participants. In the sarcopenia and frailty group, falls were related to simple reaction time (r = 0.444, p = 0.002), hand movement frequency in 10 s (r = −0.352, p = 0.014), and in 60 s (r = −0.312, p = 0.026). In women with sarcopenia and frailty, there were relationships between falls and simple reaction time (r = 0.68, p = 0.002), complex reaction time (r = 0.406, p = 0.004), hand movement frequency in 10 s (r = −0.614, p = 0.001), and in 60 s (r = −0.584, p = 0.001). In regression analysis, it was found that each millisecond increase in reaction time was associated with a 1.5% higher fall risk in the participants with sarcopenia (OR: 1.015 [1, 1.031], p = 0.048). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that slower psychomotor speed, particularly reaction time, is linked to a higher risk of falls in older adults with sarcopenia and frailty, especially in women.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Humans; Geriatric Assessment; Risk Factors; Cross-Sectional Studies; Psychomotor Performance; Reaction Time; Accidental Falls; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Female; Male; Sarcopenia; Frailty; Processing Speed; 32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences; 3202 Clinical Sciences; 42 Health Sciences; Aging; Clinical Research; Sarcopenia; 7.1 Individual care needs; Humans; Female; Male; Sarcopenia; Accidental Falls; Cross-Sectional Studies; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Frailty; Psychomotor Performance; Risk Factors; Reaction Time; Geriatric Assessment; Processing Speed; General & Internal Medicine; 32 Biomedical and clinical sciences; 42 Health sciences
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine
Divisions:	Sport and Exercise Sciences
Publisher:	MDPI
Date of acceptance:	5 April 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	31 July 2025
Date Deposited:	31 Jul 2025 09:06
Last Modified:	31 Jul 2025 09:15
DOI or ID number:	10.3390/medicina61040706
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26869

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