Kontakt 2012, 14(3):261-268 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2012.029

Subjective assessment of the swallowing function in seniors: Use of the foreign tool EAT-10Nursing

Kateřina Petržílková^1,2,*, Petra Mandysová^1,3, Jana Škvrňáková^1,4, Edvard Ehler^3,1

¹ Univerzita Pardubice, Fakulta zdravotnických studií, katedra ošetřovatelství

² Krajská nemocnice Liberec, a. s., Neurocentrum JIP

³ Pardubická krajská nemocnice, a. s., Neurologická klinika

⁴ Pardubická krajská nemocnice, a. s., Klinika otorinolaryngologie a chirurgie hlavy a krku

Difficulties in swallowing are a frequent and potentially severe problem. Dysphagia can be encountered in any period of life, but the prevalence is essentially higher in seniors (Roy et al., 2007, p. 858-865). Due to the population aging (Czech Statistical Office, 2009), it is to expect that the occurrence of swallowing disorders will ever be increased with increasing the average life span. In the dysphagia diagnostics, on the one hand, objective data resulting from the patient examination are obtained, but it is also suitable to consider subjective data, which are accumulated in the course of interviews. The Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) (Belafsky et al., 2008, p. 919-924) may be used for this purpose.
The target of the study presented here was to test the tool in an available sample of seniors, to determine the rate of occurrence of subjectively observed problems in swallowing and to describe the measure of their importance. These were seniors over 65 years of age from institutions of the health and social care in the Liberec Region. The mentioned tool EAT-10 consisting of ten items focused on the subjective assessment of the existence of problems in swallowing was employed. The rate of the problems and measure of their importance were determined. The condition for including the senior into the examination was successful completing of testing cognitive functions - Mini-Cog (Borson et al., 2006, p. 349-355) and signing the informed consent. The sample included 124 respondents over 65 years of age.
The research examination revealed that total of 51 (41%) of respondents felt subjective difficulties in swallowing; 31 (25%) of respondents had the total score according to the tool EAT-10 ≥3 points (the maximum possible score being of 40 points). The average measure of the importance of subjectively considered problems in swallowing, as obtained in particular items, was of 1.5-2.42 points (0 = no problem, 4 = major problem).

Keywords: dysphagia; EAT-10; screening of swallowing difficulties; subjective assessment

Received: January 11, 2012; Accepted: June 6, 2012; Published: September 27, 2012  Show citation