The development and validation of a new mealtime assessment tool for patients with dysphagia. The Mealtime Assessment Tool (MAT)
Giulia Rossi, Antonio Amitrano
The aim was to develop and validate a questionnaire to be administered by caregivers of patients with dysphagia in order to explore patients’ mealtime behaviour. This study aimed to create a new quantitative and qualitative mealtime assessment tool (MAT), an abridged version of an already published questionnaire, Grid for Caregivers, to be administered by the caregivers of patients with dysphagia. The development and validation process was divided into three phases. The first phase included the identification of items for the questionnaire. The second phase involved pilot testing of the first version of the tool. The final phase was a psychometric evaluation in which the test was administered to the target population: adult inpatients with diagnosed and undiagnosed oropharyngeal dysphagia. The validation process led to the conclusion that the MAT is a valid, reliable and stable scale. It is designed as a handy guide for non-professionals to work with.
Keywords
Dysphagia, Mealtime assessment, Bedside examination, Mealtime Assessment Tool (MAT), Validation process.