The correlation between SWAL-QOL outcome and functional dysphagia scale in stroke patients

Abstract

There were some reports about Swallowing Quality of Life (SWAL-QOL), however still insufficient in stroke patients. This study is to evaluate the impact of dysphagia on quality of life in stroke patients by demonstrating the correlation between Swallowing Quality of Life questionnaire outcome and Functional Dysphagia Scale (FDS) score. Sixty-one stroke patients with dysphagia were enrolled. To evaluate for patients with cognitive impairment, we used the modified SWAL-QOL questionnaire for caregiver. We performed comparative analysis between the modified SWAL-QOL score of nasogastric tube feeding patients and that of oral feeding patients ( Table 1 ). The severity of dysphagia was assessed by FDS according to the result of VFSS. We investigated the correlation between the modified SWAL-QOL score and the FDS score. When using the modified SWAL-QOL, the mean score of tube feeding group was 107.59 ± 17.04, which of oral feeding group score was 112.21 ± 20.08 ( Table 2 ). A significant difference between two groups was showed in burden and sleep domains respectively ( P = 0.012, P = 0.003). There was no significant difference in total score of modified SWAL-QOL between two groups ( P = 0.345). There was a significant inverse correlation between the total score of SWAL-QOL outcome and that of total FDS score ( r = -0.465, P = 0.000). The pharyngeal phase score of FDS was significantly correlated with burden ( r = −0.361, P = 0.004), mental health ( r = −0.364, P = 0.004), social functioning ( r = −0.307, P = 0.016) and symptom frequency ( r = −0.367, P = 0.004) domains of SWAL–QOL ( Table 3 ). We think it needs to assess the SWAL-QOL in stroke patients with dysphagia and should focus the rehabilitation of pharyngeal phase to promote better patient's quality of life.