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

Background and Purpose: Despite being associated with serious adverse outcomes, such as mortality, sarcopenia remains largely undiagnosed in older individuals. This study aimed to assess the awareness, practices, and barriers and enablers to clinical implementation of sarcopenia diagnosis and treatment among geriatric rehabilitation health care professionals in the Netherlands. Methods: As part of EMPOWER-GR, a cross-sectional survey among geriatric rehabilitation health care professionals working in the Netherlands was undertaken between September 23, 2020, and January 28, 2021. Professionals... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Verstraeten, Laure M. G.
van Wijngaarden, Janneke P.
Meskers, Carel G. M.
Maier, Andrea B.
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
Reihe/Periodikum: Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy ; volume 47, issue 2, page 67-76 ; ISSN 1539-8412
Verlag/Hrsg.: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27613601
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.1519/jpt.0000000000000379

Background and Purpose: Despite being associated with serious adverse outcomes, such as mortality, sarcopenia remains largely undiagnosed in older individuals. This study aimed to assess the awareness, practices, and barriers and enablers to clinical implementation of sarcopenia diagnosis and treatment among geriatric rehabilitation health care professionals in the Netherlands. Methods: As part of EMPOWER-GR, a cross-sectional survey among geriatric rehabilitation health care professionals working in the Netherlands was undertaken between September 23, 2020, and January 28, 2021. Professionals were recruited via a geriatric rehabilitation care provider, health care professional associations, professional networks of the research team, and social media. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the study outcomes. Results and Discussion: Of the 501 geriatric rehabilitation health care professionals, 12.2% were physicians, 23.0% physical therapist/occupational therapists, 30.3% dietitians, 19.6% nurses, and 11.0% health care assistants. The concept of sarcopenia was known by 83.8% of the participants, 92.5% correctly identified sarcopenia as low muscle mass and 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 ...