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Objectives: To estimate the healthcare costs of sarcopenia in the United States and to examine the effect that a reduced sarcopenia prevalence would have on healthcare expenditures.

Design: Cross‐sectional surveys.

Setting: Nationally representative surveys using data from the U.S. Census, Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and National Medical Care and Utilization Expenditure Survey.

Participants: Representative samples of U.S. adults aged 60 and older.

Measurements: The healthcare costs of sarcopenia were estimated based on the effect of sarcopenia on increasing physical disability risk in older persons. In the first step, the healthcare cost of disability in older Americans was estimated from national surveys. In the second step, the proportion of the disability cost due to sarcopenia (population‐attributable risk) was calculated to determine the healthcare costs of sarcopenia. These …