Development of a health education knowledge graph for sarcopenia prevention and management among community-dwelling older adults: from knowledge modeling to WeChat mini program application

Background and Objective: Sarcopenia poses a significant threat to the physical function and quality of life of community-dwelling older adults, leading to substantial long-term burden on individuals and health systems. However, effective health education tools tailored to this population remain limited. This study aimed to develop a health education knowledge graph (HEKG) for sarcopenia prevention and management in community-dwelling older adults, and to evaluate its application effect. Methods: From October 2023 to November 2025, a HEKG for sarcopenia prevention and management was developed through five phases: HEKG construction, HEKG visualization, knowledge base vectorization, Q&A system with WeChat mini program and effect evaluation. Entities and relationships were extracted from literature, books and websites, a two-round expert consultation was conducted to validate content relevance and reach consensus, assessed using content validity ratios and Kendall’s W. The system was delivered via a WeChat mini program, a pre-post design was employed to assess changes in older adults’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, and usability was evaluated with the System Usability Scale after system use. Results: The content validity ratios (Cr) for the two rounds expert consultation were .913 and .914, respectively. Kendall's concordance coefficient tests were both statistically significant (p < .01). The HEKG contained 1,568 entities and 1,599 relationships, covering sarcopenia definition, diagnosis criteria, risk factors, screening tools, and prevention measures. The WeChat mini program achieved an intent recognition accuracy of .91, first-character response time of less than 2 seconds, and an average response speed of 50 characters per second. Knowledge, attitude, and behavior scores among older adults all improved significantly after using this HEKG system (p <.001). The overall System Usability Scale score was 80.352±5.788; according to the standard classification, the scores fell within Grade A, interpreted as “recommendable.” Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the HEKG, from knowledge modeling to personalized application, provides a scalable, evidence-based tool for sarcopenia health education among community -dwelling older adults, addressing the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical care.