Hög prevalens av dysfagi hos personer med demens : En screening av sväljsvårigheter på ett vård- och omsorgsboende

Sammanfattning: Normally swallowing occurs completely without effort. Should the act of swallowing for some reason be impaired, it becomes difficult to eat and drink. Dysphagia is the medical term for eating and swallowing disorders. Dysphagia is common in people with dementia, but the prevalence is not yet fully evaluated. The most common cause of death in people with dementia is aspiration pneumonia, which can be caused by dysphagia. In Sweden investigation and treatment of dysphagia are performed by speech and language pathologists (SLPs) but few of them work with dementia care. This study aims to identify the prevalence of dysphagia in people with dementia, living in a nursing home. The screening methods SSA-S and LtL were used to test the swallowing of 38 participants between 68-96 years of age (M = 86 years). To examine the participants’ oral health the risk assessment tool ROAG was used. When tested with the water swallowing test SSA-S 71,1% of the participants showed signs of aspiration, 36,8% had an oral transit time over 5 seconds, measured with LtL and 92% of the participants had an affected oral health, showing one or more symptoms of severity grade 2 according to ROAG. When adding up the results from the two screening tests a total of 86,8% of the participants showed signs of some kind of swallowing difficulty. Correlation analysis did not show any statistically significant correlations between SSA-S, oral transit time, oral health, or age. The present study found that there is a great need for interventions from speech and language pathologists in people with dementia.