The Challenge of Appropriate Identification and Treatment of Starvation, Sarcopenia, and Cachexia: A Survey of Australian Dietitians

Table 1

Details of online questionnaire used to survey DAA members on perspectives on malnutrition.

Topic	Maximum number of questions	Response format	Examples of content
Demographic questions	11	Yes/no tick boxes; 2–8 tick boxes per question; space for comments	Age; gender; number of years of experience; employment status
Diagnosis of malnutrition	10	Yes/no tick boxes; 2–16 tick boxes per question; space for comments	ICD criteria for malnutrition; choice of markers for diagnosis of malnutrition; use of the terms starvation, sarcopenia and/or cachexia; choice of markers for diagnosis of starvation, sarcopenia and/or cachexia, if used
Case studies	3	4 tick boxes per question; space for comments	One case study for each of starvation, sarcopenia and cachexia
Treatment of malnutrition	12	Choice of 10 possible interventions to be ranked 1–10; yes/no tick boxes; 5-6 tick boxes per question; space for comments	Choice of possible interventions; further questions on specific interventions: appetite stimulants, fish oil, and resistance training
Barriers to effective treatment of malnutrition	1	Open-ended; space for comment
Guidelines for treatment of malnutrition	3	Yes/no tick boxes; space for comment	DAA guidelines; other guidelines used
Total	40^†

^†A further two questions asked the participant about their desire to continue in order to ascertain the correct path through the questionnaire.
DAA: Dietitians Association of Australia.