On the impact on patients, Luiz said: “When patients go to the doctor, the cause of any anaemia should be identified quickly and treated. It’s also important to discover the reason for any muscular weakness and prescribe resistance exercise.”
Furthermore, with regard to the impact on women, Alexandre added: “This difference may occur because men generally have more muscle mass than women, so that when men have anaemia, the musculoskeletal system is less affected. That’s only one of the possible explanations.”
Alexandre however said while dynapenia was a risk factor for women that anaemia was not: “Women typically lose muscle mass as they age, and it may be the case that anemia adds to this loss.”
On men, Alexandre said they were also negatively impacted by having more muscle mass which they subsequently lose faster than women: “However, because women generally have less muscle mass, their strength may decline over time, and this affects mortality. Dynapenia is a sign that something is wrong with the health of an older person.”
