Research Information System
Irish Journal of Medical Science, vol.190, no.4, pp.1619-1623, 2021 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Background: The methods used in the diagnosis and screening of sarcopenia are not available everywhere. There is a need for more practical tests that can be used especially in the first step. Aims: We aimed to investigate the usability of blink rate as an alternative test for dynapenia screening. Methods: A total of 355 patients ≥ 65 years of age (254 (71.50%) female and 101 (28.50%) male) who were admitted to geriatric outpatient clinic were included in this prospective cross-sectional study. Results: Blink rate was positively correlated with grip strength and negatively correlated with SARC-F. Also, it was found that the blink rate was associated with dynapenia independent of other factors. The optimal cut-off value of 15 s blink rate to predict dynapenia was measured as ≤ 40.5, with 70.3% sensitivity and 43.3% specificity. Conclusion: Our study indicated the relationship between blink rate with dynapenia and grip strength. Especially in patients with limited mobilization and where it is not possible to reach the hand dynamometer to measure grip strength, the blink rate can be used as an alternative test to detect dynapenia.