Clinical trial NCT06163118: Validation of a Screening Tool for Swallowing Disorders for the Elderly
Official title: Validation of a Screening Tool for Swallowing Disorders for the Elderly
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Swallowing Disorder
Dysphagia
Keywords: Swallowing Disorder
Dysphagia
Swallowing Disorder test
Bronchopneumonia
Geriatric short-stay unit
Lead sponsor: University Hospital Center of Martinique
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-12-08
Enrollment: 40
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 75
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Swallowing disorder, or dysphagia, is a lack of protection of the airways during the passage of the food bolus towards the esophagus. Swallowing disorder is characterized by a feeling of discomfort when swallowing, difficult swallowing in elderly people or a blockage felt during the progression of food between the mouth and the stomach, sometimes with falsities. These disorders can be the cause of a loss of appetite and a reduction in food consumption in older people.

In the most serious cases, they can lead to aspiration, weakening the pulmonary passages and possibly leading to suffocation.

Swallowing disorders constitute an important public health problem due to their prevalence among the elderly. Many early readmissions could be avoided thanks to better quality of care in these patients.

In the elderly, the number of comorbidities and the multiplicity of medications and drug intake increase the incidence of swallowing disorders in this population. They constitute a common pathology, probably underestimated and underdiagnosed in the geriatric population.

Given the aging of the Martinique population, it is appropriate to offer an easy-to-use, quickly achievable tool for diagnostic purposes, making it possible to quickly identify potential swallowing disorders, and therefore to anticipate meal intake, and on the adaptation of the prescription to a medicinal alternative (before any food or medication taken during hospitalization).

In the Geriatric Short-Stay Unit of the Martinique University Hospital, a tool called "Deglut'G", was developed, and has been used since 2015, in order to allow caregivers a rapid, reliable and relevant assessment of swallowing disorders in the elderly, in order to guide care and medication alternatives.It now appears important to validate this tool, by comparing it with the results of examinations of swallowing disorders obtained from a speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and an ENT doctor.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Person aged 75 or over hospitalized in the Geriatric Short-Stay Unit,
* Person having been informed of the research,
* Person having given free written and informed consent,
* Person affiliated to a social security scheme.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Person unable to take the tests,
* Person with an oral condition that hinders normal swallowing (stomatitis, gingivitis, etc.),
* Elderly person under legal protection, under guardianship or curatorship,
* Person who refused to participate in the study.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Measure the concordance between the results of the SLP examination, and those obtained with the Deglut'G tool, for the detection of swallowing disorders.
timeFrame: 12 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Measure the concordance between the results of the ENT doctor examination, and those obtained with the Deglut'G tool, for the detection of swallowing disorders
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Measure the concordance of the measurements obtained with the Deglut'G tool between two caregivers, for the detection of swallowing disorders
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Estimate the average time it takes to use the Deglut'G tool
timeFrame: 12 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Fort-de-France
country: France
facility: University Hospital Center of Martinique
Study officials:
affiliation: University Hospital Center of Martinique
name: Seendy Bartholet, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: