Clinical Calculators

SARC-F (sarcopenia case finding)

Five-item questionnaire to find people who may have sarcopenia (strength, walking, rising from a chair, stairs, falls)

5 items left

Strength: how hard is it for you to lift and carry 10 pounds?
Assistance in walking: how hard is it for you to walk from one side of a room to the other?
Rise from a chair: how hard is it for you to transfer out of a chair or a bed?
Climb stairs: how hard is it for you to go up a flight of 10 stairs?
Falls: how many times did you fall during the past 12 months?

Cautions

  • SARC-F is a screening (case-finding) questionnaire, not a diagnosis of sarcopenia. Malmstrom 2016 describes people who screen positive as needing further testing to confirm sarcopenia. In AWGS 2019 the diagnosis is made with muscle strength, physical performance and muscle mass.
  • The answers are the person’s own report. There is no measurement of function or muscle mass, so a score below 4 does not rule out sarcopenia.
  • Each of the five items scores 0 to 2 and the total is 0 to 10. A total of 4 or more is positive (Malmstrom 2016 split the score into symptomatic, 4 or more, and healthy, 0 to 3; AWGS 2019 uses 4 or more for case finding).
  • The strength question asks about 10 pounds, as in the original questionnaire. This calculator keeps the original unit and does not convert it.
  • The wording of the 2-point answers follows the Methods of Malmstrom 2016 ("a lot of difficulty" is shortened to "A lot"). The 2013 form of the questionnaire may word them a little differently, so check the form your service uses.
  • The validation cohorts of Malmstrom 2016 were community-based samples of middle-aged and older adults (community-dwelling African American adults aged 49 to 65 when the cohort started, the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging at ages 60 and over, and NHANES 1999 to 2002 at ages 60 to 85). The Japanese guideline advises caution in applying the AWGS 2019 diagnostic criteria to conditions such as stroke and Parkinson disease.

References

  1. Malmstrom TK, Morley JE. SARC-F: a simple questionnaire to rapidly diagnose sarcopenia. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2013;14(8):531-532. (original not seen) DOI: 10.1016/j.jamda.2013.05.018[Original article]
  2. Malmstrom TK, Miller DK, Simonsick EM, Ferrucci L, Morley JE. SARC-F: a symptom score to predict persons with sarcopenia at risk for poor functional outcomes. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle. 2016;7(1):28-36. (Abstract; Methods (the five items, answers and points; 4 or more is symptomatic); Discussion (screening, not diagnosis)) PMID: 27066316, DOI: 10.1002/jcsm.12048, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4799853/[Original article]
  3. Chen LK, Woo J, Assantachai P, et al. Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia: 2019 Consensus Update on Sarcopenia Diagnosis and Treatment. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2020;21(3):300-307.e2. (original not seen) PMID: 32033882, DOI: 10.1016/j.jamda.2019.12.012[Guideline]
  4. Sarcopenia Clinical Practice Guideline Committee (ed.). Clinical Guidelines for Sarcopenia 2017 - Revised Edition (supervised by the Japanese Society for Sarcopenia and Frailty and the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology) (in Japanese). Life Science Publishing; 2020. (The section on the AWGS 2019 criteria (case finding with SARC-F; caution for stroke and Parkinson disease) and the SARC-F table) https://minds.jcqhc.or.jp/common/summary/pdf/c00426.pdf[Guideline]

Checked on: 2026-11-07

Disclaimer

This calculation is intended to support the judgment of healthcare professionals. Results are for reference only; decisions about diagnosis and treatment must be made by the responsible healthcare professional. The values you enter never leave your device.