Swallowing impairment and feeding dependency in the hospitalised elderly.

TL;DRAbstract

A prospective study was carried out to determine the prevalence of swallowing impairment and feeding dependency in an acute geriatric medicine unit in Singapore and the co-morbidity associated with it. A total of 211 patients were assessed over a 3-month period. Only 7.1% of patients gave a history of swallowing impairment prior to hospitalisation. We found that 29.4% of patients on admission and 28.2% on discharge had swallowing impairment, with a mortality of 8.1%. The prevalence of feeding dependency, as defined by the need for feeding assistance or tube feeding, was 26.5% before admission and 27.8% on discharge. The mode of feeding between the time of admission and discharge was changed in 14.9% of patients in response to the evolving medical condition. Swallowing impairment was significantly associated with the presence of dehydration (RR = 2.82, CI = 1.74-4.57), chest infection on admission (RR = 2.85, CI = 1.85-4.41), development of nosocomial chest infection (RR = 6.75, CI = 2.

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