Earlier last year the Alliance shared the findings of an important study on physician knowledge of sarcopenia. Limited Physician Knowledge of Sarcopenia: A survey, was published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society (JAGS) and the full report was made available open-access to the public. It turns out that people are interested, because the article has received 4,000 views to-date!
One of the key findings of the study—conducted by the Alliance’s Aging in Motion coalition–was that less than 20 percent of internists and family medicine physicians reported being very familiar with the term “sarcopenia.” So it’s good news that this article is being read. Starting as early as 30 we all being to gradually lose muscle mass, but for some this loss is more rapid and debilitating and can lead to falls, hospitalizations, reliance on long term care, and even death. This makes recognition of the condition vital.
The survey also found that only 8 percent of family medicine physicians who responded use the term sarcopenia in practice, only 24 percent use one or more of the standard definitions of sarcopenia, and only 35 to 39 percent use objective measures to make a diagnosis. To learn more about the study visit our original release and the full article on-line at JAGS.
