Relationship between Swallowing Function, and Functional and Nutritional Status in Hospitalized Elderly Individuals

Dysphagia is highly prevalent among hospitalized elderly individuals. However, the underlying mechanism of this condition remains to be elucidated. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between swallowing function, and functional and nutritional status in hospitalized elderly individuals. The subjects consisted of 113 patients with a mean age of 86.4 years. Those who had Parkinson’s disease and a cerebrovascular accident within 6 months, or malignancy were excluded. Swallowing measures included a graded water swallowing test and food intake level scale; functional measures included a physical dependency scale and a comprehension scale; and nutritional measures included serum albumin levels, mid-upper arm circumference, and calf circumference. Both of the swallowing measures had significant correlations with the functional and nutritional measures but not with age, suggesting that dysphagia in this clinical population is related to functional dependency and malnutrition. Given that sarcopenia is exacerbated by disease, inactivity and malnutrition, the result of the present study is possibly explained using the concept of sarcopenia involving the swallowing muscle mass and its function. Keywords: Dysphagia, elderly, sarcopenia, dependency, malnutrition. Read more →