Presbyphagia in fragile institutionalised elderly people. A proposal for a new set of items for evaluation and a prevention project on safe nutrition
Chiara Mezzedimi, Walter Livi, Lara Laschi, Silvia Santucci, Fabio Ferretti
The purpose of this study was to directly observe a group of institutionalised elderly patients in order to gather information on the ways in which individuals with presbyphagia or with suspected presbyphagia eat their meals in their residential environment, with the aim of setting up a simplified but effective dysphagia evaluation tool. It is published as an appendix to the pamphlet on presbyphagia Swallowing in safety, designed to provide information and awareness to the elderly, caregivers and nursing staff on safe nutrition, with specific advice on recognising and dealing with the main symptoms and the prevention of pathologies linked to nutrition by mouth for individuals with presbyphagia. During the study 72 patients from three nursing homes, all over 65 years old and fed by mouth, were observed during meal times. Amitrano and Crinelli’s (2005) Observation grill for patients with dysphagia during mealtimes was used, to which some formal and structural changes were later made in order to tackle the difficulties in classifying the patients observed and to try to turn it into a simple but valid measuring tool. Results showed a high percentage of signs of frank dysphagia (38,9%), which, having been considered neither by the individual nor the nursing staff, were not adequately treated.
Keywords
Presbyphagia, Ageing, Fragile institutionalised elderly patients, New set of evaluation items, Swallowing in safety.