Sarcopenia as a public health problem

The importance of a health problem is based on its current and expected prevalence, its clinical and economic consequences, the social status of people affected by the problem and the availability of an effective treatment. In this paper, we review the main current literature on sarcopenia in order to assess whether this geriatric syndrome could be considered as a major public health problem. Our review highlights that based on its prevalence, its clinical consequences, the limitations of the current available treatments as well as on the fact that many frail patients are affected by this geriatric syndrome, sarcopenia should be considered as a health priority by all interested parties in order to reduce its burden. (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS and European Union Geriatric Medicine Society. All rights reserved.