Prevalence and risk factors for geriatric dysphagia

Abstract

Introduction: Geriatric dysphagia is becoming an increasingly needful area as the population ages across many countries. Aged care staff and caregivers for the elderly are often ill equipped to deal with swallowing difficulties as there is limited knowledge of the occurrence and risk factors in this population and setting. This study aimed to identify prevalence and potential risk factors for geriatric dysphagia that will inform more efficient screening and management. Method: 34 elderly residential facilities and 21 elderly day care centers were surveyed by mail on the residents’ need for diet modification. 878 elderly from these centers were further clinically assessed. Logistic regression was used to search for potential risk factors for this group of participants. Results: Among the 4328 individuals from residential facilities and 1928 individuals from day care centers surveyed, 61% and 41% required dietary modifications that indicated dysphagia, respectively. Factors associated with dysphagia were gender, need for feeding assistance, dependency level, EAT-10 score, Mini Mental State Exam Score, and diseases other than those commonly identified to cause dysphagia. Conclusions: There is a higher prevalence of dysphagia in elderly individuals who live in residential facilities than those who receive day care service. The sample investigated confirms a number of known risk factors for dysphagia, and points to further research to pinpoint more specific factors in individual medical histories that place significant dysphagia risk on elderly individuals. Acknowledgements: This project was funded by Public Policy Research Fund, University Grants Council, Hong Kong.