To demonstrate the relationship between short physical performance battery (SPPB) and sarcopenia, and to determine the cut-off point for sarcopenia using SPPB scores in older cardiac inpatients.

This cross-sectional study included 74 older cardiac inpatients (mean age 78.2 years; 43.2% women). We evaluated the presence of sarcopenia and the SPPB before hospital discharge. We defined sarcopenia using the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia-suggested diagnostic algorithm. The SPPB scores were categorised into three groups (0–6, 7–9, and 10–12). Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of the relationships between various SPPB categories and the presence of sarcopenia using univariate and multivariate analyses. The cut-off point of SPPB score for determining sarcopenia was evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic curve.

The presence of sarcopenia in the 0–6, 7–9, and 10–12 of SPPB score groups were 87.5%, 78.6%, and 17.3%, respectively. After adjustments for conditions of cardiac diseases, the OR (95% CI) in reference to the patients with scores of 10–12 were 22.16 (1.53–321.45) in the patients with scores of 7–9, and 141.04 (1.90–10,481.96) in the patients with scores of 0–6. The cut-off point of SPPB score for determining sarcopenia was 9.5 (sensitivity, 0.92; specificity, 0.67; area under the curve, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.74–0.94; P<0.01).

The SPPB score was significantly associated with sarcopenia. Additionally, the cut-off point of SPPB score for determining sarcopenia was 9/10 in older cardiac inpatients.