Healthcare policymakers and commissioners of services often review incidence and prevalence data when deciding on resource allocation. The authors of this paper have capitalised on a large dataset, the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), which collects data on over 51K Canadians over 45 years of age. The authors undertook a secondary analysis to determine the incidence and prevalence of dysphagia as well as the predictors of self-reported difficulty swallowing in adults aged between 45 and 85 years old. They found that the incidence of dysphagia was 8.6% whilst the prevalence was 10.6%, rising to 13.7% three years later. These figures were based on part of a nutritional screen that asked about frequency of coughing, choking and/or experiencing pain when swallowing either food or drink. Variables that appeared to predict reports of swallowing problems included: malnutrition, frailty, poor oral health, older age, female sex and non-white ethnicity. This is a useful paper to read to consider how to use secondary analysis from large population datasets. The limitations are well considered. Nevertheless, the paper provides benchmark statistics for incidence and prevalence of self-reported swallowing problems in the general population. It will be useful to see if such data can be captured from other longitudinal studies of ageing in other countries and how this compares to the Canadian data.
How common is self-reported dysphagia in the general population?
Reviewed by Roganie Govender
Prevalence, Incidence, and Predictors of Self-reported Swallowing Difficulties in Community-Dwelling Adults: A Population-Based Study from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).
CONTRIBUTOR
Roganie Govender
University College London, Head & Neck Academic Centre, UK.
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