Abstract
Objective: The 10-item Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) is specifically designed to address the clinical need for a rapidly self-administered and easily-scored questionnaire to assess dysphagia symptom severity. An EAT-10 score above 3 is abnormal and indicates the presence of swallowing difficulties. We translated the EAT-10 into Japanese, and studied the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the EAT-10.
Method: Translation of EAT-10 was implemented in iterative process including forward translation, expert panel back-translation, and pre-testing. A cross-sectional study was performed in 393 elderly aged 65 years and above with dysphagia or suspected dysphagia. Severity of dysphagia was assessed by the Dysphagia Severity Scale (DSS). For assessment of reliability, we used Cronbach' s alpha coefficient. Validity was evaluated by examining the associations between the EAT-10 score and the DSS by Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. The sensitivity and specificity of the EAT-10 for dysphagia were also assessed.
Results: A total of 237 patients (60%) responded to the EAT-10. Cronbach' s alpha coefficient was 0.946. Elderly who could not respond to the EAT-10 were likely to have dysphagia. Median EAT-10 score of 237 respondents was 1 (0, 9), and 101 respondents were more than 3. There were significant correlations between the EAT-10 score and the DSS (r=-0.530, p<0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of EAT-10 with a score 3 or above for dysphagia were 0.522 and 0.897, for dysphagia with aspiration were 0.758 and 0.749, respectively.
Conclusion: The Japanese version of the EAT-10 is a useful swallowing screening tool.
