ArticleBMC public health2026
Effects of sarcopenia on cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults: mediating roles of social participation and instrumental activities of daily living disability.
Article in BMC public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMechanisms linking sarcopenia and cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults in China remain unclear. We examined whether social participation and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) disability mediate the longitudinal association between sarcopenia status and cognitive function.
methodsWe included 7,114 participants from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) who were followed for 7 years. Associations between sarcopenia status (non-sarcopenia, possible sarcopenia, sarcopenia) and cognitive function were examined using multivariable linear regression. Parallel mediation and moderated mediation effects were tested using nonparametric bootstrapping.
resultsAfter covariate adjustment, sarcopenia was associated with poorer cognitive function compared with non-sarcopenia (B = -0.784, P < 0.001). For possible sarcopenia, IADL disability showed an indirect-only mediating effect (B = -0.055, 95% CI: -0.091 to -0.024). For sarcopenia, both IADL disability (B = -0.133, 95% CI: -0.219 to -0.061) and social participation (B = -0.047, 95% CI: -0.115 to -0.002) partially mediated the association, accounting for 14.94% and 5.28% of the total effect, respectively.
conclusionIn this observational cohort, IADL disability showed an indirect-only mediating effect for possible sarcopenia, while IADL disability and social participation partially mediated the association for sarcopenia. These findings suggest potentially relevant pathways and may inform stage-tailored strategies. Further studies are needed to confirm the proposed pathways and assess causality.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.