Background: The incidence and prevalence of sarcopenia is strongly age, sex, and diseases dependent. High senile and men are more likely to become sarcopenia had been proven. The purpose of this study was to identify which group of older adults with and without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was more easily to become sarcopenia.

Methods: Our participants are a group of healthy older people who live in retirement homes and can take care of their daily lives without nursing assistance. There were 305 enrolled and the average age was 81.8 years old with 43.3% being male. The incidence of COPD was 12.5% according to the 2017 GOLD guidelines. There were 38 in group of COPD subjects and 267 in the group of non-COPD subjects. There were 20 had sarcopenia in 25 COPD of 132 male subjects and 5 had sarcopenia in 13 COPD of 173 female subjects according to Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) 2019 criteria.

Results: The incidence and prevalence of sarcopenia in the group of COPD and non-COPD subjects were explored in our study. Twenty-five from 38 COPD subjects and 109 from 267 non-COPD subjects had sarcopenia (odds ratios (OR): 2.79; 95% CI= 1.37-5.69; p value=0.005). Five from 13 female COPD subjects and 53 from 160 female non-COPD subjects had sarcopenia (odds ratios (OR): 1.26; 95% CI= 0.39-4.04; p value=0.696). Twenty from 25 male COPD subjects and 56 from 107 male non-COPD subjects had sarcopenia (odds ratios (OR): 3.64; 95% CI= 1.27-10.42; p value=0.016).

Conclusion: The group of COPD subjects is more likely to have sarcopenia than the group of non-COPD subjects, especially in the group of male COPD subjects.