Malnutrition knowledge among nursing staff in four European countries: A cross-sectional study

Nursing staff must have sufficient knowledge in order to adequately prevent and treat malnutrition. However, only a marginal amount of information on this topic is available in the literature. This paper provides a comparison of the malnutrition knowledge among nursing staff in Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Turkey and presents factors associated with the malnutrition knowledge of nursing staff. A cross-sectional study was performed. Nursing staff from different care settings in Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Turkey participated in the study. The KoM-G 2.0 (Knowledge of Malnutrition – Geriatric) questionnaire was used for data collection. In total, 2056 participants from different care settings took part in the study. Between 11.7 % (Turkey) and 32.5 % (Austria) of the participants had high levels of malnutrition knowledge. The country itself was the factor most strongly associated with malnutrition knowledge. The nurses' educational level and specialised training of nursing staff were also significantly (p