A validation study of the Facial-Oral Tract Therapy Swallowing Assessment of Saliva

TY - JOUR

T1 - A validation study of the Facial-Oral Tract Therapy Swallowing Assessment of Saliva

AU - Mortensen, Jesper

AU - Jensen, Ditte

AU - Kjærsgaard, Annette

PY - 2016/4/1

Y1 - 2016/4/1

N2 - Objective: To investigate the validity and reliability of the Swallowing Assessment of Saliva in detection of aspiration risk. Design: Validation study. Setting: Inpatient neurorehabilitation centre. Subjects: Adult patients with acquired brain injury. A total of 43 patients for concurrent validity and 33 other patients for inter-rater reliability. Interventions: Concurrent validity was established with blinded Swallowing Assessment of Saliva and endoscopic evaluation within a 24-hour time interval. Inter-rater reliability was established with two blinded Swallowing Assessments of Saliva within a one-hour time interval. Main measures: The Swallowing Assessment of Saliva is a seven-item scale with a combination of swallowing and non-swallowing items. It is based on the Facial-Oral Tract Therapy approach. Results: The Swallowing Assessment of Saliva had a sensitivity of 91%, 95% confidence interval (CI) (59; 100), a specificity of 88% %, 95% CI (71; 97) and a kappa coefficient of 0.87 ±0.17 in detection of aspiration risk. Furthermore, analyses showed that experienced and inexperienced occupational therapists performed equally in detection of aspiration risk. Conclusion: The Swallowing Assessment of Saliva is a simple, sensitive and reliable assessment for detecting aspiration risk in patients with acquired brain injury.

AB - Objective: To investigate the validity and reliability of the Swallowing Assessment of Saliva in detection of aspiration risk. Design: Validation study. Setting: Inpatient neurorehabilitation centre. Subjects: Adult patients with acquired brain injury. A total of 43 patients for concurrent validity and 33 other patients for inter-rater reliability. Interventions: Concurrent validity was established with blinded Swallowing Assessment of Saliva and endoscopic evaluation within a 24-hour time interval. Inter-rater reliability was established with two blinded Swallowing Assessments of Saliva within a one-hour time interval. Main measures: The Swallowing Assessment of Saliva is a seven-item scale with a combination of swallowing and non-swallowing items. It is based on the Facial-Oral Tract Therapy approach. Results: The Swallowing Assessment of Saliva had a sensitivity of 91%, 95% confidence interval (CI) (59; 100), a specificity of 88% %, 95% CI (71; 97) and a kappa coefficient of 0.87 ±0.17 in detection of aspiration risk. Furthermore, analyses showed that experienced and inexperienced occupational therapists performed equally in detection of aspiration risk. Conclusion: The Swallowing Assessment of Saliva is a simple, sensitive and reliable assessment for detecting aspiration risk in patients with acquired brain injury.

U2 - 10.1177/0269215515584381

DO - 10.1177/0269215515584381

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25920675

SN - 0269-2155

VL - 30

SP - 410

EP - 415

JO - Clinical Rehabilitation

JF - Clinical Rehabilitation

IS - 4

ER -