In the elderly, this often leads to decreased biological reserve and increased vulnerability to stressors known as the "frailty syndrome". Loss of lean body mass is also associated with increased risk of infection, decreased immunity, and poor wound healing. The weakness that accompanies muscle atrophy leads to higher risk of falls, fractures, physical disability, need for institutional care, reduced quality of life, increased mortality, and increased healthcare costs. This represents a significant personal and societal burden and its public health impact is increasingly recognized. Research directions
There are significant opportunities to better understand the causes and consequences of sarcopenia and help guide clinical care. This includes elucidation of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of sarcopenia, further refinement of reference populations by ethnic groups, validation of diagnostic criteria and clinical tools, as well as tracking of incidence of hospitalization admissions, morbidity, and mortality. Identification and research on potential therapeutic approaches and timing of interventions is also needed.New pharmaceutical therapies in clinical development include myostatin and the selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs). Nonsteriodal SARMs are of particular interest, given they exhibit significant selectivity between the anabolic effects of testosterone on muscle, but with little to no evidence of androgenic effects (such as prostate stimulation in men). See also
Cachexia
Ageing
Frailty syndrome
Geriatrics
Dynapenia

References
Further reading
Fujita S, Volpi E (January 2006). "Amino acids and muscle loss with aging". The Journal of Nutrition (Review). 136 (1 Suppl): 277S–80S. doi:10.1093/jn/136.1.277S. PMC 3183816. PMID 16365098. Roubenoff R (December 2007). "Physical activity, inflammation, and muscle loss". Nutrition Reviews. 65 (12 Pt 2): S208-12. doi:10.1111/j.1753-4887.2007.tb00364.x. PMID 18240550.
Contrary to what just said, Bain and Blackburn (2004) also state in another study the use of r-EPO does not appear to have a significant effect on reducing the numbers of early transfusions in most infants, but may be useful to reduce numbers of late transfusion in extremely low-birth-weight infants. A British task force to establish transfusion guidelines for neonates and young children and to help try to explain this confusion recently concluded that “the optimal dose, timing, and nutritional support required during EPO treatment has yet to be defined and currently the routine use of EPO in this patient population is not recommended as similar reduction in blood use can probably be achieved with appropriate transfusion protocols.”

Transfusion management
Other strategies involve the reduction of blood loss during phlebotomy.For extremely low birth weight infants, laboratory blood testing using bedside devices offers a unique opportunity to reduce blood transfusions. This practice has been referred to as point-of-care testing or POC. Use of POC tests to measure the most commonly ordered blood tests could significantly decrease phlebotomy loss and lead to a reduction in the need for blood transfusions among critically ill premature neonates as these tests frequently require much less volume of blood to be collected from the patient. A study was done by Madan and colleagues to test this theory by conducting a retrospective chart review on all inborn infants <1000g admitted to the NICU that survived for 2 weeks of age during two separate 1 year time periods.