Effect of Nursing Intervention Program on Knowledge and Practices of Elderly Regarding Sarcopenia

BackgroundSarcopenia is one of prevalent conditions affecting the elderly, which raises the risk offunctional disability, falls, loss of independence, a decline in quality of life, higher medicalexpenses, and increased risk of death. Aim of the study to evaluate the effect of nursingintervention program on knowledge and practices of elderly regarding sarcopenia. Subjectsand method: - Study design: A quasi-experimental study design was conducted carry out thisstudy. Subjects: A purposive sample of 60 elderly was used in this study. Tools of datacollection: - Two tools were used in the study. Tool I: Structured interview Schedule: -composed of 4 parts: Part (1): - Socio-demographic data of studied elderly Part (2): - Medicalhistory of the elderly. Part (3): -The SARC-F questionnaire for screening of sarcopenia andpart (4): - The Physical Self-Maintenance Scale (PSMS). Tool II: - Knowledge and reportedpractice of the studied elderly related to sarcopenia: - Part 1: - Knowledge of elderlyrelated to sarcopenia. Part (2): - Self-reported practices related to sarcopenia. Results: - It wasevident that, most (98.3%) of the studied elderly had a low level of knowledge aboutsarcopenia pre intervention program implementation compared to only two fifths (40.0%)after implementation of nursing intervention program. All (100%) of the studied elderlypracticing low level of physical activity pre nursing intervention program compared to morethan three quarters (78.3%) of them three months' post intervention program. On the otherhand, no one of the studied elderly practicing moderate and high level of physical activity prenursing intervention program compared to (11.7% and 10.0% respectively) three months postprogram intervention. Conclusion and recommendations: - It was concluded that the nursingintervention program significantly increase the knowledge and preventive practices of thestudied elderly regarding sarcopenia including physical activity, daily living activity andnutritional practices. So, ongoing education, routine screening and additional research relatedto sarcopenia are recommended in this study