2017 Volume 21 Issue 1 Pages 3-10
Objectives: Many elderly people requiring long-term care suffer from oral motor disturbances. Therefore, providing them with guidance on food textures suitable to their masticatory function is very important. This study aimed to develop a method of judging masticatory function using commercially sold masticatory training food.
Methods: Commercially sold masticatory training food was cut into a 2-gram semi-cylindrical piece using a standardized cutter. The test food was prepared by putting two semi-cylindrical pieces of different colors together to form a 4-gram cylinder. External observation of test-food mastication, and endoscopic observation of food bolus properties of flow into the pharynx were performed to assess masticatory function. Subjects’ sex, age, Food Intake Level Scale (FILS) at the first visit, eating and swallowing grade (Fujishima’s grade) after evaluation, mean mastication number, mean duration of mastication, and the relationships between these items and the food-bolus properties in the pharynx were investigated. The respective intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (2,1) was calculated.
Results: The ICCs (2,1) of the masticatory movement and food-bolus properties were 0.898 and 0.964, respectively. The mean mastication number and the mean duration of mastication were significantly different due to the test-food properties (p＜0.05).
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that external observation of test-food mastication using commercially sold masticatory training food is useful for determining masticatory function and for evaluating masticatory disturbances.
