Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Arabic version of the SARC-F for evaluating sarcopenia in Saudi older adults

Objective: The purpose of this study is to translate and cross-culturally adapt the SARC-F to Arabic and to assess the reliability and validity of the scale for use among community-dwelling older adults in Saudi Arabia. Methods: Older adults aged 60 years and above were included. The translation and cross-cultural adaptation process followed standardized guidelines. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were evaluated over two visits one week apart. Moreover, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the SARC-F were calculated. The validity of the Arabic version of the SARC-F was assessed against other measurements related to sarcopenia. Results: A total of 182 community-dwelling older adults were enrolled (mean age = 65 ± 5.2 years). The internal consistency with the overall Cronbach’s alpha was 0.71. For the test-retest reliability with a one-week interval, the ICC was 0.94. The Arabic SARC-F scale was significantly associated with other measurements related to sarcopenia. The sensitivity of the Arabic SARC-F ranged from 28 to 50%, and the specificity ranged from 81.4 to 82.9%. Conclusion: The SARC-F was successfully translated and adapted into the Arabic language. The Arabic SARC-F showed excellent reliability and adequate validity but revealed low sensitivity with high specificity across different sarcopenia definitions, which indicates that it can detect the absence of sarcopenia.