Validation of a Screening Tool for Swallowing Disorders for the Elderly (DéGluT'G)

University Hospital Center of Martinique

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Dysphagia; Swallowing Disorder

Treatments: Diagnostic Test: SLP swallowing test; Diagnostic Test: Deglut'G test; Diagnostic Test: ENT doctor swallowing test

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06163118

21_RIPH2-14

Details and patient eligibility

About

Swallowing disorder, or dysphagia, is a lack of protection of the airways during the passage of the food bolus towards the esophagus. Swallowing disorder is characterized by a feeling of discomfort when swallowing, difficult swallowing in elderly people or a blockage felt during the progression of food between the mouth and the stomach, sometimes with falsities. These disorders can be the cause of a loss of appetite and a reduction in food consumption in older people.

In the most serious cases, they can lead to aspiration, weakening the pulmonary passages and possibly leading to suffocation.

Swallowing disorders constitute an important public health problem due to their prevalence among the elderly. Many early readmissions could be avoided thanks to better quality of care in these patients.

In the elderly, the number of comorbidities and the multiplicity of medications and drug intake increase the incidence of swallowing disorders in this population. They constitute a common pathology, probably underestimated and underdiagnosed in the geriatric population.

Given the aging of the Martinique population, it is appropriate to offer an easy-to-use, quickly achievable tool for diagnostic purposes, making it possible to quickly identify potential swallowing disorders, and therefore to anticipate meal intake, and on the adaptation of the prescription to a medicinal alternative (before any food or medication taken during hospitalization).

In the Geriatric Short-Stay Unit of the Martinique University Hospital, a tool called "Deglut'G", was developed, and has been used since 2015, in order to allow caregivers a rapid, reliable and relevant assessment of swallowing disorders in the elderly, in order to guide care and medication alternatives.It now appears important to validate this tool, by comparing it with the results of examinations of swallowing disorders obtained from a speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and an ENT doctor.

Enrollment: 40 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 75+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Person aged 75 or over hospitalized in the Geriatric Short-Stay Unit,
• Person having been informed of the research,
• Person having given free written and informed consent,
• Person affiliated to a social security scheme.

Exclusion criteria

• Person unable to take the tests,
• Person with an oral condition that hinders normal swallowing (stomatitis, gingivitis, etc.),
• Elderly person under legal protection, under guardianship or curatorship,
• Person who refused to participate in the study.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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40 participants in 1 patient group

Patient aged 75 or over hospitalized in the Geriatric Short-Stay Unit

Experimental group

Description:

Two caregivers from the Geriatric Short-Stay Unit will successively administer the "Deglut'G" tool to each patient, blind to each other, and blind to the SLP and ENT doctor examination. All patients will have a SLP examination and an ENT doctor examination aimed at detecting swallowing disorders.

Treatment:

Diagnostic Test: Deglut'G test

Diagnostic Test: SLP swallowing test

Diagnostic Test: ENT doctor swallowing test