High Sarcopenia Awareness Contrasts a Lack of Clinical Implementation Among Geriatric Rehabilitation Health Care Professionals in the Netherlands: EMPOWER-GR

Abstract

strength (and low physical performance), and 73.8% identified sarcopenia as very important in the management of older adults admitted for rehabilitation. Although 26.2% and 18.9% of the participants reported screening and diagnosing sarcopenia, respectively, in their current practice, only 3.0% adequately used the (revised) definition of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People. When sarcopenia has been diagnosed, 65.0% reported initiating treatment consisting of resistance exercise training (78.7%), food fortification/high-energy or protein diet (85.4%), and oral nutritional supplements (70.4%). Most important barriers to screening and diagnosis were lack of knowledge, access to tools, and equipment and time, while enablers were protocol implementation, access to training, and clear responsibilities. Conclusions: Sarcopenia awareness is high among geriatric rehabilitation health care professionals in the Netherlands, but adequate screening and diagnosis is almost nonexistent in current clinical practice, which hampers interventions. Better knowledge, clear responsibilities, and access to tools and protocols, as well as prioritization, are needed for sarcopenia to be diagnosed and treated in geriatric rehabilitation in the Netherlands.

Sarcopenia knowledge of geriatric rehabilitation patients is low while they are willing to start sarcopenia treatment: EMPOWER‐GR

“…A study using Google Trends showed that sarcopenia is poorly searched compared with osteoporosis 14 and that knowledge of osteoporosis is estimated to be over 80% among young women, which is much higher compared with the present study. 28 Similarly, the majority of healthcare professionals reports lacking knowledge to diagnose and treat sarcopenia, 12 while 83% of physicians felt competent in managing osteoporosis. 29 The age at which inpatients thought muscle mass to start to decline was higher compared with community-dwelling older adults (46 years old), while the decline may begin as early as age 30 years.…”

“…11 Although the large majority of healthcare professionals reports to know the term sarcopenia, diagnosis and treatment implementation in clinical practice is lacking due to a lack of access to equipment, knowledge, time and priority. 12,13 Contrastingly, sarcopenia is largely unknown among the general public as the term is poorly searched on Google compared with other age-related diseases like dementia and osteoporosis. 14 Also, a majority of community-dwelling older adults lack knowledge on sarcopenia; common barriers to treatment include time constraints, costs and dislike to visiting a healthcare professional.…”