Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p> <bold>Background:</bold> Individuals with dementia commonly experience sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass), dysphagia (swallowing difficulty) and malnutrition. Evidence indicates that dysphagia affects approximately 58.00% of older adults with dementia, while 32.50% are malnourished and 46.80% are at risk of malnutrition. Additionally, meta-analytic evidence links sarcopenia with mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Although these conditions may overlap, direct prevalence data for the full triad remain limited. This matters because dementia may impair attention, insight, communication and tolerance of lengthy assessments; therefore, bedside instruments need to be brief, low-burden, valid and clinically interpretable. This scoping review mapped bedside or ward-feasible screening and assessment tools across these three domains and summarised psychometric evidence in older adults with dementia. <bold>Methods:</bold> We conducted a Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review in line with PRISMA-ScR. MEDLINE, Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and PsycINFO were searched from 1990 to December 2025. Eligible peer-reviewed studies involved adults aged ≥60 years with dementia in inpatient, rehabilitation, or long-term/residential care and reported at least one sarcopenia, dysphagia/sarcopenic dysphagia, or malnutrition tool with at least one psychometric property in people with dementia . Two reviewers independently screened studies and charted data. <bold>Results:</bold> 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. <bold>Conclusions:</bold> 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. <bold>Protocol and registration:</bold> The review was guided by a prospectively developed protocol registered in the Open Science Framework database (https://osf.io/f47x9) </p>