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. 2019 Feb;104(2):137-144.
doi: 10.1007/s00223-018-0478-1. Epub 2018 Sep 22.

Health Care Costs Associated With Muscle Weakness: A UK Population-Based Estimate

Rafael Pinedo-Villanueva  1 , Leo D Westbury  2 , Holly E Syddall  2 , Maria T Sanchez-Santos  1 , Elaine M Dennison  2   3 , Sian M Robinson  2   4 , Cyrus Cooper  5   6   7
Affiliations

Health Care Costs Associated With Muscle Weakness: A UK Population-Based Estimate

Rafael Pinedo-Villanueva et al. Calcif Tissue Int. 2019 Feb.

Abstract

Sarcopenia and muscle weakness are responsible for considerable health care expenditure but little is known about these costs in the UK. To address this, we estimated the excess economic burden for individuals with muscle weakness regarding the provision of health and social care among 442 men and women (aged 71-80 years) who participated in the Hertfordshire Cohort Study (UK). Muscle weakness, characterised by low grip strength, was defined according to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health criteria (men < 26 kg, women < 16 kg). Costs associated with primary care consultations and visits, outpatient and inpatient secondary care, medications, and formal (paid) as well as informal care for each participant were calculated. Mean total costs per person and their corresponding components were compared between groups with and without muscle weakness. Prevalence of muscle weakness in the sample was 11%. Mean total annual costs for participants with muscle weakness were £4592 (CI £2962-£6221), with informal care, inpatient secondary care and primary care accounting for the majority of total costs (38%, 23% and 19%, respectively). For participants without muscle weakness, total annual costs were £1885 (CI £1542-£2228) and their three highest cost categories were informal care (26%), primary care (23%) and formal care (20%). Total excess costs associated with muscle weakness were £2707 per person per year, with informal care costs accounting for 46% of this difference. This results in an estimated annual excess cost in the UK of £2.5 billion.

Keywords: Ageing; Health care costs; Muscle weakness; Sarcopenia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

CC reports personal fees (outside the submitted work) from Alliance for Better Bone Health, Amgen, Eli Lilly, GSK, Medtronic, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Servier, Takeda and UCB. EMD reports personal fees (outside the submitted work) from Pfizer Healthcare and from the UCB Discussion panel. RPV, LDW, HES, MTSS and SMR declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The baseline Hertfordshire Cohort Study had ethical approval from the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Local Research Ethics Committee and the follow-up had ethical approval from the East and North Hertfordshire Ethical Committees.

Human and Animal Rights

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

All participants gave signed consent to participate in the study and for their health records to be accessed in the future.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Annual costs per person for different uses of health and social care according to muscle strength. Muscle weakness was defined using low grip strength (< 26 kg for men, < 16 kg for women)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Excess annual costs per person for individuals with muscle weakness compared to those without and proportion of costs according to types of health and social care. Muscle weakness was defined using low grip strength (< 26 kg for men, < 16 kg for women)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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