Abstract
Dysphagia is a common problem in elderly persons and it is recently becoming an important social and medical issue in the field of health care. The age-related changes in the swallowing function were herein multilaterally assessed in 47 healthy aged volunteers (10 males and 37 females, 60-87 years old with an average of 68.9 years). The self-reported questionnaire showed 30% of the participants reported “aspiration during swallowing or drinking”, 23% of “aspiration before swallow”, and 13% of “increasing dysphagia recently”, thus indicating a potential subclinical swallowing disorder in an aged population. By videoendoscopic observations, the salivary pooling in the vallecula and piriform sinuses, glottal-closure reflex, and pharyngeal clearance after swallowing 3ml of blue-dye water was evaluated and graded according to a scale of 0 to 3. The percentages of disturbed swallowing function, with a score of 2 or 3, were 19%, 13% and 25%, respectively. Videofluorography showed significant prolongations of the pharyngeal transition time and a laryngeal elevation delay time with aging, despite of insignificant changes in the distances of hyoid and laryngeal elevation. These disorders had an increased prevalence in older (≥70 years) persons. In conclusion, the present study revealed an increasing risk of swallowing disorder associated with normal aging.
