2002 Volume 6 Issue 1 Pages 38-48
This study investigates the subjective symptoms and factors related to swallowing function among elderly persons living at home．Some 2508 elderly person aged 60 and over belonging to a Senior Club were investigated using a seif-administered questionnaire with respect to Dysphagia Risk Assessment Scale which measures the swallowing function of elderly persons living at home， and the factors related there to；sex，age，health conditions and lifestyle．The study of 658 subjects consisted of 276 males and 382 females（mean age 74.9 years，SD 6.7）who responded to all questions related to sex，age，and Dysphagia Risk Assessment Scale．The data were tested by Mann-Whitney test，Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis．The results were as follows．
1． The elderly persons living at home were frequently aware of symptoms of “aspiration” and “esophageal dysphagia,” but rarely “pharyngeal clearance problems” as subjective symptoms indicating decreased swallowing function．
2． From the results of the Mann-Whitney test and Pearson correlation coefficient，the following 10 factors showed statistically significant differences in relation to total scores of Dysphagia Risk Assessment Scale： sex，age，clinical history，medications affecting swallowing function，the number of teeth，mastication ability，physical exercise，going outside，going outside and talking，and drinking (p＜0.05)．Multiple regression analysis was used with the 10 factors as dependent variables and total scores of Dysphagia Risk Assessment Scale as independent variables．The factors indicating a statistically significant correlation were clinical history influencing swallowing function， physical exercise，mastication ability，medications affecting swallowing function and age to (p＜0.05)．Thus，the disease factors that influenced swallowing in the past， physical exercise less than 1-2 times a week，poor mastication ability，taking medications affecting swallowing and age in turn were closely related to decreased swallowing function．
3． Accordingly， a habit physical exercise and mastication ability strongly impacted the swallowing function of elderly persons living at home in addition to their clinical history and medications．It was suggested that continuous light physical exercise and maintaining mastication ability will prevent against a declining swallowing function by aging．
