Decreased swallowing function in the sarcopenic elderly without clinical dysphagia: a cross-sectional study
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Decreased swallowing function in the sarcopenic elderly without clinical dysphagia: a cross-sectional study Yen-Chih Chen1, Pei-Yun Chen1, Yu-Chen Wang1, Tyng-Guey Wang1* and Der-Sheng Han2
Abstract Background: Sarcopenia and dysphagia are prevalent health issues as the elderly population continues to grow. However, whether sarcopenia, defined by either reduced handgrip strength or gait speed, would lead to pathological effects on swallowing function is still a matter of debate. Studies focusing on subclinical changes in the swallowing function in the sarcopenic elderly are lacking. This study evaluates the swallowing function in the sarcopenic elderly without dysphagia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted including subjects recruited from the community. Ninety-four individuals aged 65 and older without dysphagia were divided into two groups: sarcopenia and nonsarcopenia. The swallowing assessment included tongue pressure measurement, hyoid displacement (HD), hyoid velocity (HV) measurement with submental ultrasonography, 100-ml water-swallowing test, and the 10-item Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10). Results: The average tongue pressure was 47.0 ± 13.7 and 48.6 ± 11.5 kPa in the sarcopenia and nonsarcopenia groups, respectively (p = 0.55), whereas the average HD during swallowing was 15.3 ± 4.4 and 13.0 ± 4.2 mm in the sarcopenia and nonsarcopenia groups, respectively (p < 0.05). The median of HV during swallowing was 19.5 (6.41– 45.86) and 15.9 (3.7–39.7) mm/s in the sarcopenia and nonsarcopenia group (p < 0.05). The median of time needed for consuming 100 ml water was 12.43 (3.56–49.34) and 5.66 (2.07–19.13) seconds in the sarcopenia and nonsarcopenia groups, respectively (p < 0.05). The median of the EAT-10 score was 0 (0–2) and 0 (0–1) in the sarcopenia and nonsarcopenia groups, respectively (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In elderly individuals, swallowing function was significantly impaired with sarcopenia before clinical symptoms become clear. However, tongue muscles exhibited resistance to sarcopenia. We observed compensative strategies in patients with sarcopenia, such as reduced swallowing speed and increased hyoid bone movement. Keywords: Swallow, Sarcopenia, Hyoid, Tongue, Dysphagia
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, No.1, Changde Street, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City 10048, Taiwan, Republic of China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated other
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