Validation of a Screening Tool for Swallowing Disorders for the Elderly

Swallowing disorder, or dysphagia, is a lack of protection of the airways during the passage of the food bolus towards the esophagus. Swallowing disorder is characterized by a feeling of discomfort when swallowing, difficult swallowing in elderly people or a blockage felt during the progression of food between the mouth and the stomach, sometimes with falsities. These disorders can be the cause of a loss of appetite and a reduction in food consumption in older people.

In the most serious cases, they can lead to aspiration, weakening the pulmonary passages and possibly leading to suffocation.

Swallowing disorders constitute an important public health problem due to their prevalence among the elderly. Many early readmissions could be avoided thanks to better quality of care in these patients.

In the elderly, the number of comorbidities and the multiplicity of medications and drug intake increase the incidence of swallowing disorders in this population. They constitute a common pathology, probably underestimated and underdiagnosed in the geriatric population.

Given the aging of the Martinique population, it is appropriate to offer an easy-to-use, quickly achievable tool for diagnostic purposes, making it possible to quickly identify potential swallowing disorders, and therefore to anticipate meal intake, and on the adaptation of the prescription to a medicinal alternative (before any food or medication taken during hospitalization).

In the Geriatric Short-Stay Unit of the Martinique University Hospital, a tool called "Deglut'G", was developed, and has been used since 2015, in order to allow caregivers a rapid, reliable and relevant assessment of swallowing disorders in the elderly, in order to guide care and medication alternatives.It now appears important to validate this tool, by comparing it with the results of examinations of swallowing disorders obtained from a speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and an ENT doctor.