The effect of Kinesio Taping on drooling in children with intellectual disability: A double-blind randomized controlled study

Abstract

PurposeDrooling is an unintentional spillage of saliva, which can be caused by any condition that affects the neuromuscular control of mouth muscles. There are different treatments for drooling, some of which are novel therapies with unknown efficacy like Kinesio Taping (KT). This study aimed to investigate the effects of adding KT to oral-motor training (OMT) on drooling in children with intellectual disability. MethodThis is a double-blind randomized controlled trial in which 18 children with intellectual disabilities participated through convenience sampling. Participants were randomly assigned into 2 groups by block randomization method. Kinesio taping of orbicularis oris, supra-hyoid and masseter muscles and routine OMT were performed for the intervention group. The control group received taping with no stretch as placebo. Pre-post assessment was carried out after four weeks of intervention by the drooling rating scale (DRS) and drooling quotient (DQ) test. ResultsWithin-group analysis showed a significant reduction in drooling post-intervention in both groups based on DRS and DQ (p < 0.001). Between-group analysis indicated a significant improvement in the intervention group (P = 0.008) with moderate effect size using DQ assessment but this difference was not significant with moderate effect size based on parental reports using DRS. ConclusionDQ assessment revealed that using KT plus OMT can produce greater improvement than sham taping plus OMT. However, there was not a statistically difference between the two groups based on parental reports using DRS. In addition, within-group analysis showed that drooling reduced in both groups after the intervention both based on DRS and DQ assessments. It can be concluded that adding taping with and without stretch to OMT can be considered as a complementary method to mitigate drooling in children with intellectual disabilities.