SARC‐F includes five components: strength, assistance walking, rise from a chair, climb stairs, and falls. SARC‐F items were selected to reflect health status changes associated with the consequences of sarcopenia.3, 4 SARC‐F scale scores range from 0 to 10 (i.e. 0–2 points for each component; 0 = best to 10 = worst) and were dichotomized to represent symptomatic (4+) vs. healthy (0–3) status. The SARC‐F scale was constructed using the same questions in AAH and BLSA. Strength was measured by asking respondents how much difficulty they had lifting or carrying 10 lbs. (0 = no difficulty, 1 = some, and 2 = a lot or unable to do). Assistance walking was assessed by asking participants how much difficulty they had walking across a room and whether they use aids or need help to do this (0 = no difficulty, 1 = some difficulty, and 2 = a lot of difficulty, use aids, or unable to do without personal help). Rise from a chair was measured by asking respondents how much difficulty they had transferring from a chair or bed and whether they used aids or needed help to do this (0 = no difficulty, 1 = some difficulty, and 2 = a lot of difficulty, use aids, or unable to do without help). Climb stairs was measured by asking respondents how much difficulty they had climbing a flight of 10 steps (0 = no difficulty, 1 = some, and 2 = a lot or unable to do). Falls was scored a 2 for respondents who reported falling four or more times in the past year, 1 for respondents who reported falling 1–3 times in the past year, and 0 for those reporting no falls in the past year. SARC‐F construction in NHANES used the same strength and climb stairs items as in AAH and BLSA. There were minor wording differences in the NHANES items for assistance walking (assessed by asking difficulty walking between rooms on the same floor) and rise from a chair (assessed by asking difficulty standing up from armless chair). NHANES did not ask participants to report the specific number of falls in the past year but did ask about difficulty with balance or falling in past year. The NHANES SARC‐F falls was scored a 2 for respondents who reported falling problems in the past year, 1 for respondents who reported only balance problems in the past year, and 0 for those reporting no falling or balance problems in the past year.