Cachexia and Chronic Disease

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Healthcare will focus on cachexia and chronic disease.

Cachexia is characterized by an ongoing loss of skeletal muscle mass (with or without loss of fat mass) and progressive functional impairment that cannot be fully reversed by conventional nutritional support alone. Cachexia has a devastating physical and psychological effect on patients and caregivers, resulting in altered body image, reduced quality of life, and decreased physical function. It is often associated with the end of life.

Cachexia is reported in almost all chronic diseases at the advanced stages including cardiac disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and chronic kidney disease (CKD).  The prevalence of cachexia varies depending on the diagnostic criteria used: 5–15% in cardiac disease, 5–15% in COPD, 15–32% in RA, 50–75% in CKD, and between 60% and 80% in cancer patients, and exceeds 80% in the last 1–2 weeks of life. It is a complex metabolic and multifactorial syndrome requiring early intervention and multimodal management. Currently, there is no standardized treatment for cachexia management.

This Special Issue will feature original and interesting clinical studies, reviews, short reports, narratives, and opinion pieces pertaining to this research topic. Potential topics include:

• Issues related to cachexia management in chronic disease for patients, carers and/or healthcare staff.
• Specific learning points for multidisciplinary healthcare practitioners working in cachexia management in chronic disease.
• Multimodal cachexia management approaches for patients and/or families.
• Integrated psychosocial care for patients living with cachexia and chronic disease and/or their families.

Prof. Dr. Joanne Reid
Dr. Carolyn Blair
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.