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Bedside screening and assessment tools for sarcopenia, dysphagia and malnutrition in older adults with dementia: a scoping review
Adeniji T, Kolawole FO, Okemuo A, Fawole HO, Akinrolie O, McCartney A, Roberts S, Adjei-Nicol S et al.. Research Square, 2026-07-25
Topic: Health services, long-term care and technology
From 12,770 records, 3,636 duplicates were removed and 9,134 titles and abstracts were screened. Of 108 reports sought for retrieval, 99 full texts were assessed and 11 studies were included. Evidence was unevenly distributed: eight tool families, representing 11 named tool versions/methods, were identified, five for malnutrition or feeding difficulty, three for dysphagia and none for sarcopenia. All tool families were single-domain; no dyadic or tri-domain instrument or pathway had dementia-sample psychometric evidence. Among diagnostic studies, the Eating Assessment Tool-10 showed area under the curve values of 0.96 for unsafe swallowing and 0.81 for aspiration against videofluoroscopic swallowing study, while the Mini Nutritional Assessment showed 60.00% sensitivity and 94.70% specificity against established nutritional criteria. Available evidence in dementia care is strongest for malnutrition and feeding-related assessment, with fewer dysphagia studies and no eligible sarcopenia tool validation. These findings support dementia-specific sarcopenia validation and integrated multi-domain approaches feasible for routine bedside practice. Protocol and registration: The review was guided by a prospectively developed protocol registered in the Open Science Framework database (https://osf.io/f47x9)
Key findings
- From 12,770 records, 3,636 duplicates were removed and 9,134 titles and abstracts were screened.
- Of 108 reports sought for retrieval, 99 full texts were assessed and 11 studies were included.
- Evidence was unevenly distributed: eight tool families, representing 11 named tool versions/methods, were identified, five for malnutrition or feeding difficulty, three for dysphagia and none for sarcopenia.
- All tool families were single-domain; no dyadic or tri-domain instrument or pathway had dementia-sample psychometric evidence.
- Among diagnostic studies, the Eating Assessment Tool-10 showed area under the curve values of 0.96 for unsafe swallowing and 0.81 for aspiration against videofluoroscopic swallowing study, while the Mini Nutritional Assessment showed 60.00% sensitivity and 94.70% specificity against established nutritional criteria.
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Study details
- Effect size58.00%; 32.50%; 46.80%
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 16/100
Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. It scored 27 on the same rubric, but non-peer-reviewed sources are capped at 16, so it shows as 16. Scored zero for study design, sample size, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 17 of the 62 points we could judge it on, which is 27 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 2 / 10 | Tier 4 — not a peer-reviewed journal (Research Square) |
| Journal's citation record | 0 / 4 | Not a journal article, so the journal's record does not count |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 4 / 10 | Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. Hosted on a preprint server. |
| How recent | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 2 / 3 | Effect reported as a number, without an interval or test |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 1 / 2 | Not in PubMed, but has a DOI |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Points | 17 / 62 | Scored on 12 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 17 of the 62 points we could judge it on is 27 out of 100. |
| Total | 27 / 100 | Capped to 16 because this is not a peer-reviewed article. |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Adeniji, T., Kolawole, F. O., Okemuo, A., Fawole, H. O., Akinrolie, O., McCartney, A., et al. (2026). Bedside screening and assessment tools for sarcopenia, dysphagia and malnutrition in older adults with dementia: a scoping review. Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9920981/v1
Vancouver
Adeniji T, Kolawole FO, Okemuo A, Fawole HO, Akinrolie O, McCartney A, et al. Bedside screening and assessment tools for sarcopenia, dysphagia and malnutrition in older adults with dementia: a scoping review. Research Square. 2026. doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-9920981/v1.
BibTeX
@article{adeniji2026-573be0ef,
author = {Adeniji, T. and Kolawole, F. O. and Okemuo, A. and Fawole, H. O. and Akinrolie, O. and McCartney, A. and Roberts, S. and Adjei-Nicol, S. and others},
title = {{Bedside screening and assessment tools for sarcopenia, dysphagia and malnutrition in older adults with dementia: a scoping review}},
journal = {Research Square},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-9920981/v1},
url = {https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9920981/v1}
}