2019 Volume 33 Issue 4 Pages 448-454
Oral diadochokinesis（ODK）evaluation helps improve oral function and provide preventive oral care. ODK involves recording the number of times a subject pronounces each of the sounds /pa/ /ta/ /ka/ in one second. However, it is difficult for elderly people to self-measure with the IC recorder and pen-tapping methods. Therefore, we aimed to establish a simple self-assessment method for ODK evaluations.
In the proposed self-assessment method, the subjects pronounced the sound /pataka/, while pointing at “10 pataka” written on a piece of paper, and measured the time in seconds（ “10 pataka” method）. The researcher simultaneously measured the time using a stopwatch. The results were expressed as number of sounds pronounced per second. The study participants were 27 elderly individuals. The measurements were taken twice, once for the “10 pataka” method and once for the ODK. An oral function measuring device（Kenkou-kun Handy®）was used to evaluate ODK.
A positive correlation was observed between the “10 pataka” method and each of /pa/ /ta/ /ka/ of the ODK, and between the measurements recorded by the subjects and researcher in the “10 pataka” method. The sensitivity of both the ODK and “10 pataka” methods was 0.78 and the specificities were 0.89 and 0.94, respectively, when the threshold of any of the ODK parameters was set at ≤4 times/s and the threshold of the “10 pataka” method was set at ≤6 s and ≤5.5 s for measurements by the subjects and researcher, respectively.
These results suggest that the proposed method is useful not only as a self-check method for patients but also as a simple screening test for operators.
