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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the associations between muscle thickness and echo intensity with cognitive and physical dimensions like functional capacity measured in older people. This cross‐sectional study involved 20 older adults (15 women and 5 men, mean age ± SD: 85 ± 7 years, body mass index: 25 ± 3 kg/m2) from a geriatric centre in Malaga (Spain). Anthropometric measurements, cognitive assessment with Pfeiffer Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire and Motor Memory test, Physical Performance with Short Physical Performance Bat-tery, and muscle strength were tested. Additionally, using B‐mode ultrasonography, images of wrist flexors, biceps brachii, rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, medial gastrocnemius, and tibialis anterior were captured, and muscle thickness and echo intensity variables were extracted. An association between muscle parameters assessed by ultrasonography and cognitive and physical dimensions were found in older people. Echo intensity was the best predictor in a set of regression models with different muscle parameters and a battery of cognitive and physical tests in older people. Echo intensity adjusted by handgrip strength could be a low cost and ambulatory index and an indirect and reversible indicator of functional capacity.

The purpose of this study was to describe the acceleration variables in a plyometric jump test using the inertial sensor built into an iPhone 4S® smartphone, and the jumping variables from a contact mat. A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 16 healthy young adults. Linear acceleration, flight time, contact time and jump height were measured in a drop jump test from 60 cm and from 30 cm. Greater acceleration values were found in the drop jump test from 60 cm; the same was observed for the values from the contact mat. Multiple regression analysis was performed for each drop jump test: jump height was used as the dependent variable, and the most relevant variables were used as predictor variables (weight and maximum angular velocity in the Y axis for analysis of the drop jump from 60 cm, and weight and maximum acceleration in the Z axis for the drop jump from 30 cm). We found a significant regression model for the drop jump test from 60 cm (R2 = 0.515, p "0.001) and for the test from 30 cm (R2 = 0.460, p "0.01). According to the results obtained in this study, the built-in iPhone 4S® inertial sensor is able to measure acceleration for healthy young adults performing a vertical drop jump test. The acceleration kinematic variables are higher in the drop jump test from 60 cm than from 30 cm.

Muscle thickness, measured by ultrasonography, has been investigated for nutritional assessment in older adults, however the associations between muscle ultrasound parameters in the lower limb and nutritional status have not been studied. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between muscle thickness echo intensity (EI), and nutritional status in home care residents. A cross sectional study was conducted involving 19 older adults from a home care in Malaga (Spain). We evaluated lower leg muscles by ultrasound, anthropometric data, physical function (measured by gait speed and the Short Physical Performance Battery), strength (handgrip and knee extensors strength) and nutritional status across the Mini-Nutritional Assessment Short-Form (MNA-SF). We found that muscle thickness assessed by ultrasonography independently predicts nutritional status by MNA-SF and after adjusting for handgrip strength or age and sex. As secondary findings, we found relations between strength, functional capacity and the MNA-SF test. These results suggest that lower leg muscle ultrasound parameters could be used as a low-cost objective method for muscle evaluation in nutritional assessment in older adults.