The findings come from a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Public Health, which synthesized prevalence data from eleven primary studies conducted across the Middle East.
The research team, led by Bader Alqahtani of Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia, together with colleagues from the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health and Taibah University, carried out a computerized literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, and SCOPUS covering the period from database inception to September 2025. Their inclusion criteria targeted primary studies conducted in Middle Eastern countries that measured sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years and older.
From the search, eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. When the authors combined their results using a random-effects meta-analysis, the pooled prevalence of sarcopenia among older adults in the Middle East was 35 percent, with a 95 percent confidence interval ranging from 23 to 48 percent. The very wide interval reflects substantial statistical heterogeneity across the included studies, quantified by an I-squared value of 99.3 percent, meaning that nearly all of the variability in reported prevalence estimates was attributable to differences between studies rather than to chance within them.
Such extreme heterogeneity is a notable feature of the analysis and warrants caution when interpreting the single pooled figure. Readers should therefore treat the 35 percent figure as an overall summary of a diverse body of evidence rather than a precise estimate that applies uniformly to every community in the region.
The analysis also examined sex differences. The pooled sarcopenia rate was higher among women, at 28 percent, compared with 26 percent among men. While the difference between the sexes is small in absolute terms, the authors report it as a consistent pattern in the data, with women showing a slightly higher prevalence than men across the pooled estimates.
To assess whether the findings might be distorted by the tendency of journals to publish studies with more striking results, the researchers applied Egger’s regression test, a statistical method for detecting publication bias. The test did not detect any evidence of publication bias in the sample of included studies, providing some reassurance that the pooled estimate is not simply an artifact of selective reporting.
The authors conclude that the overall prevalence of sarcopenia in older adults in the Middle East is relatively high, and they characterize the condition as a significant public health concern. In their conclusion, they argue that the findings highlight a need for national public health strategies aimed at preventing the progression of sarcopenia and its associated complications.
Several limitations should be kept in mind when interpreting the results. The meta-analysis rests on eleven studies, and the confidence interval around the pooled prevalence is broad, spanning 23 to 48 percent. The near-total heterogeneity statistic indicates that the individual studies differed markedly from one another, and the abstract does not report subgroup analyses that would explain these differences.
The review was restricted to community-dwelling adults aged 60 and over in Middle Eastern countries, so its estimates should not be generalized to older adults in hospitals, care homes, or other regions. The search captured titles published through September 2025, and the article was received in August 2026 and accepted in September 2026, with the final formatted version to be published by the journal.
For public health authorities in the Middle East, the practical implication drawn by the authors is that sarcopenia deserves attention in national aging strategies. The evidence summarized here establishes the scale of the problem as measured across the available studies; it does not by itself evaluate any particular prevention or treatment program.
Subject of Research: The prevalence of sarcopenia among community-dwelling older adults in Middle Eastern countries
Article Title: Prevalence of sarcopenia among older adults in the Middle East countries: a meta-analysis
Article References: Alqahtani, B. A., Alhwoaimel, N. A., AlHarbi, B. A., Alsayer, A. A., & Alenazi, A. M. (2026). Prevalence of sarcopenia among older adults in the Middle East countries: a meta-analysis. Frontiers in Public Health, 14, Article 1968834. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1968834
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1968834
Keywords: sarcopenia, older adults, Middle East, meta-analysis, systematic review, prevalence, public health, aging, muscle mass, community-dwelling, older, adults
News Source: Ophelia Keating. (October 29, 2026). Sarcopenia Affects About a Third of Older Adults in the Middle East, Meta-Analysis Finds. Scienmag.
