Moving beyond malnutrition screening: The Value of Sarcopenia Assessment in Practice

Conversations in Practice

Malnutrition screening is well embedded across most clinical settings, but do we miss an opportunity to screen patients for sarcopenia which may change our nutritional management plan?

A recent conversation with a dietetic department in the South East of England   highlighted how muscle mass assessment tools are being used to deepen nutritional assessments in community and allow delivery of a more comprehensive management plan.

Why consider sarcopenia screening?

The negative impacts of malnutrition are well understood - increased mortality, increased morbidity and increased healthcare expenditure for the patients we treat.^1,2

The importance of malnutrition screening is well accepted within our healthcare system and in many healthcare settings screening is routinely implemented.

Sarcopenia, a condition describing reduced muscle quantity, quality and function, is also associated with costly negative health outcomes to both our patients and the healthcare system³, however screening is not currently a routine part of the care that we provide.

The European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) provide an algorithm for management of sarcopenia in the older population.⁴ The first step is to screen using a validated tool. 

How community dietitians are embedding sarcopenia screening

The conversation with the dietetic team highlighted the key role sarcopenia screening tools play in identifying those at risk of muscle wastage within their care. One example used is the SARC-F screening tool.⁵

The SARC-F tool provides a list of 5 simple questions designed to assess a patient’s muscular function, for example: “How much difficulty do you have walking across a room?” There are 5 SARC-F components: Strength, Assistance with walking, Rise from a chair, Climb stairs and Falls. The scores range from 0 to 10, with 0 to 2 points for each component. A score equal to or greater than 4 is predictive of sarcopenia and poor outcomes.

The tool is short and simple and gives clinicians information on whether a patient may need additional assessment of their muscle mass as per the EWGSOP algorithm (e.g. hand grip strength or sit to stand testing). Sarcopenia may benefit from specific nutritional and exercise interventions, and so screening could help inform us how these patients are managed.⁶

The community team described how they have built these questions into their electronic note system as a template, helping embed sarcopenia screening alongside malnutrition screening in their dietetic practice. Should patients screen positive, they will then carry out further muscle mass assessments (e.g. hand grip strength), enriching their data whilst avoiding unnecessary investigations where they aren’t needed. 

How do you assess muscle health?

How are you screening for sarcopenia and assessing muscle mass in your clinical setting? We’d love to hear about your experiences, preferred tools, and any challenges you face in practice.

Your insights can help inform future educational initiatives and scientific discussions. Contact us at scientific.affairsUK@fresenius-kabi.com

References:

1)       Malnutrition Task Force. Malnutrition in England factsheet. Available online: Malnutrition in England factsheet | Malnutrition Task Force. Accessed July 2026.

2)       Rasheed, S. and Woods, R.T., 2013. Malnutrition and quality of life in older people: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ageing research reviews, 12(2), pp.561-566.

3)       Beaudart C, Alcazar J, Abrahamian I, Batsis JA, Yamada Y, Prado CM, Reginster JY, Sanchez-Rodriguez D, Lim WS, Sim M, von Haehling S, Woo J, Duque G; Global Leadership Initiative in Sarcopenia (GLIS) Group. Health outcomes of sarcopenia: a consensus report by the outcome working group of the Global Leadership Initiative in Sarcopenia (GLIS). Aging Clin Exp Res. 2025;37:100.

4)     Cruz-Jentoft AJ, Bahat G, Bauer J, Boirie Y, Bruyère O, Cederholm T, Cooper C, Landi F, Rolland Y, Sayer AA, Schneider SM, Sieber CC, Topinkova E, Vandewoude M, Visser M, Zamboni M; Writing Group for the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People 2 (EWGSOP2), and the Extended Group for EWGSOP2. Sarcopenia: revised European consensus on definition and diagnosis. Age Ageing. 2019;48(1):16-31. doi:10.1093/ageing/afy169.

5)     Malmstrom TK, Morley JE. SARC-F: a simple questionnaire to rapidly diagnose sarcopenia. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2013;14(8):531-2.

6)     Holdoway A, Ashworth A. Sarcopenia: Managing Adult Malnutrition in the Community – A Healthcare Professional Fact Sheet. Managing Adult Malnutrition in the Community; Accessed July 2026. Available from: https://www.malnutritionpathway.co.uk/library/factsheet_sarcopenia.pdf