Generalized myasthenia gravis linked to higher death risk
Medicare beneficiaries with the disease had 8% higher mortality risk at 12 months than those without myasthenia gravis.
Stake: Johnson & Johnson funded the study.
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Researchers conducted an observational cohort study of 37,321 US Medicare Fee-for-Service beneficiaries with generalized myasthenia gravis, a disease that causes muscle weakness, and 373,210 without myasthenia gravis. Their mean age was 74 years, and 47% were female. The researchers used records from January 2018 to December 2023. They matched the groups by age and the year follow-up began, then used statistical weighting to balance demographic and clinical characteristics.
Mortality risk was 8% higher in the disease group at 12 months and 7% higher at 24 and 36 months. Within that group, older age, male sex, greater disease severity and most other illnesses were associated with higher mortality risk.
Why it matters
The findings highlight the complexity of managing this muscle-weakening disease alongside other illnesses in older people.
Caveats
The observational design cannot establish that the disease caused the higher mortality risk. The study assessed deaths from all causes, not deaths attributed specifically to myasthenia gravis.
From the paper
- Participants
A total of 373,210 patients in the non-MG cohort were matched 10:1 on age and index year to the gMG cohort.
Results, Baseline characteristics among the gMG and non-MG cohorts
- Follow-up
In the unweighted analysis, over the mean duration of follow-up of 18.8 months in the gMG cohort and 18.2 months in the non-MG cohort, 7,425 (19.9%) and 58,823 (15.8%) of patients died, respectively.
Results, All-cause mortality among the gMG and non-MG cohorts
- Limitation
First, the CMS data capture the fact and date of death but not the cause of death; cause-specific mortality therefore could not be assessed.
Quoted word for word from the full text on tandfonline.com.
The paper
Mortality in generalized myasthenia gravis among Medicare beneficiaries in the United States
Johnson & Johnson (United States); Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) Medical Group Multispecialty Care – St. Elizabeth’s
Current Medical Research and Opinion, Oct 5, 2026, Open access
