Sarcopenia Solutions (Stare)

Course overview

Sarcopenia is a condition that involves the gradual loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function affecting over 50 million people. Given the aging global population and increased prevalence of non-communicable disease, sarcopenia has become an increasingly pressing health concern, costing over $18.5 billion in direct health care costs in the U.S. alone, and projected to affect over 200 million people in the next 30 years. While sarcopenia is mostly associated with aging, it is also very common in patients encountered in physical and occupational therapy care, such as those with diseases, conditions, or lifestyles that limit physical activity. Sarcopenia can lead to decreased physical performance, increased frailty, exacerbation of chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, a higher risk of falls and fractures, and increased mortality rates. Thus, sarcopenia significantly contributes to severe loss in quality of life, increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes, and significant burdens to healthcare systems. A significant rise in attention towards addressing sarcopenia has led to an explosion in sarcopenia research, placing therapists and rehabilitation professionals at the center of applying proposed treatments. Fortunately, sarcopenia can be effectively treated through a combination of increasing awareness to diagnose, prevent, mitigating its progression, and even reverse it through multifactorial strategies that rehabilitation professionals are ideally suited to address. In this course, you will learn what sarcopenia is, why it is a problem, how to diagnose it, and how to apply creative evidence-based strategies to prevent and treat it. This course will empower you as a therapist to have a profound impact on the patients you treat, the communities you serve, and local and global healthcare burdens.