Abstract
Personalized tongue pressure (TP) training focuses on improving swallowing. This study aims to establish the TP values of different age levels and compare changes between different swallowing status among community-dwelling elders. In this cross-sectional study, 1000 participants, aged 60 years old and above, were recruited from community care centers. All participants were classified into non chewing and/or swallowing difficulties (NCSD) and with chewing and/or swallowing difficulties (CSD) groups and their diseases and dieting status were recorded using a structured questionnaire. A disposable oral probe was used to measure TP by asking participants to compress it against the hard palate with maximum voluntary effort. Among 1000 elders, 63.10% had CSD and their TP (from 31.76 to 18.20 kPa) was lower than the NCSD group (from 33.56 to 24.51 kPa). Both groups showed the same tendency for TP decline with increasing age. Decline of TP makes CSD elderly have a poor appetite, eat a soft or liquid diet, and take longer to eat a meal (all p < 0.050). The secondary risk factor dominating TP decline for NCSD and CSD elders is having an education level less than primary school and an abnormal eating assessment, respectively. Our results demonstrated that TP decline has a significant relationship with age changes. Education level and an abnormal eating assessment score are closely associated with TP decline. A series of TP values can be used as a reference indicator of personalized medicine during the aging process among community-dwelling older adults.
Highlights
Taiwan’s accelerated rate of aging issues have become an imperative topic in the country’s long-term care policy and practice [1,2]
The results of this study show evidence that tongue pressure (TP) declines are in parallel for NSCD and chewing and/or swallowing difficulties (CSD) adults at every 5-year increase in age
This study clearly demonstrates that TP decreased with natural aging in older adults
Summary
Taiwan’s accelerated rate of aging issues have become an imperative topic in the country’s long-term care policy and practice [1,2]. In response to the challenge of the rapidly growing older population, the new policy of long-term care, called LTC 2.0, was launched, planned, developed, and implemented in 2017 to prevent and delay the functional decline of the community-dwelling older population [3]. A previous study in Taiwan found that 21.8% of the community’s elderly in Taiwan aged 65–95 years old tended to choke at least three times a week during eating, and 12.8% of the study population were assessed as having swallowing disorders [8]. Based on this proportion, it is reasonable to estimate that approximately 480,000 elders in Taiwan have swallowing disorders. Swallowing disorders and/or difficulties reduce the willingness and ability to eat food or drink liquids they once loved, causes nutritional imbalance, weight loss, dehydration, and increases the risk of and mortality from aspiration pneumonia in the elderly [9]
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