Development of a questionnaire to screen dysphagia

• Published in: The Japanese Journal of Dysphagia Rehabilitation Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 3 - 8
• Main Authors: OHKUMA, Ruri, FUJISHIMA, Ichiro, KOJIMA, Chieko, HOJO, Kyoko, TAKEHARA, Itaru, MOTOHASHI, Yutaka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japanese Society of Dysphagia Rehabilitation 30.06.2002
• Subjects: dysphagia; questionnaire; screening; sensitivity; specificity
• ISSN: 1343-8441; 2434-2254
• DOI: 10.32136/jsdr.6.1_3

＜Purpose＞Development of a questionnaire to screen dysphagia practically，easily and efficiently．＜Questionnaire＞The questionnaire is composed of 15 items，covering areas such as history of pneumonia，nutritional state，oral，pharyngeal and esophageal function and airway protective function．The response is selected from “A： severe symptom”，“ B： mild symptom” and “C： no symptom”．＜Subject and Method＞1）Examining reliability using repeated measure： Each subject（n ＝84，mean age 56 years）completed the questionnaire twice with one week interval．The first and second responses were compared to examine its reliability．2）Examining specificity and sensitivity： 50 patients with stroke，and who have dysphagia but are able to take in food orally (dysphagia group，mean age 69 years)，145 patients with stroke but do not have dysphagia (non dysphagia group，mean age 69 years)，and 170 healthy individuals（healthy group，mean age 65）completed the questionnaire．The responses were aggregated for each item among the three groups in order to calculate the specificity and sensitivity．＜Result＞ The first and second scores were consistent and showed high reliability with Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.8473．Forty-six patients（92％）among the dysphagia group selected response A for at least one of the items． On the other hand， only 31 persons （9.8％）among the non dysphagia group and healthy group（n＝315）selected response A for at least one of the items．With the assumption that those who selected response A as having dysphagia， the specificity and sensitivity for detecting dysphagia when using the questionnaire were calculated； specificity ＝ 90.1％，sensitivity ＝ 92.0％．＜Discussion＞ The current questionnaire showed high reliability，sensitivity，and specificity．The questionnaire is easy to administer and is anticipated to be effective in screening dysphagia in diverse population．