ABSTRACT
Objective@#To investigate the effect of VitalStim electrical stimulation combined with traditional swallowing therapy on severe dysphagia in patients with Parkinson′s disease (PD).@*Methods@#In all, 36 PD patients with severe dysphagia were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group, each of 18. Both groups were given the traditional swallowing therapy, while the treatment group was additionally provided with VitalStim electrical stimulation. Before and 15 days after the intervention, both groups were assessed using the modified Mann assessment of swallowing ability (MMASA) and standardized swallowing assessment (SSA).@*Results@#After the intervention the average SSA score of the control group had dropped significantly, but no significant change was observed in their average MMASA score. However, significant improvement was observed in both the average MMASA score and the average SSA score of the treatment group. Moreover, the cure rate of the treatment group was 47.1%, significantly higher than that of the control group.@*Conclusion@#VitalStim electrical stimulation combined with traditional swallowing therapy is effective for alleviating severe dysphagia among PD patients. It is worthy of application and further study in clinical practice.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effect of VitalStim electrical stimulation combined with traditional swallowing therapy on severe dysphagia in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods In all, 36 PD pa-tients with severe dysphagia were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group, each of 18. Both groups were given the traditional swallowing therapy, while the treatment group was additionally provided with VitalStim electrical stimulation. Before and 15 days after the intervention, both groups were assessed using the modi-fied Mann assessment of swallowing ability ( MMASA) and standardized swallowing assessment ( SSA) . ResultsAfter the intervention the average SSA score of the control group had dropped significantly, but no significant change was observed in their average MMASA score. However, significant improvement was observed in both the average MMASA score and the average SSA score of the treatment group. Moreover, the cure rate of the treatment group was 47.1％, significantly higher than that of the control group. Conclusion VitalStim electrical stimulation combined with traditional swallowing therapy is effective for alleviating severe dysphagia among PD patients. It is worthy of ap-plication and further study in clinical practice.
ABSTRACT
Objective To develop the quality of life questionnaire applicable to the Chinese patients with dysphagia by the translation and modification,as well as psychometric evaluation of the original swallowing quality of life questionnaire (SWAL-QOL).Methods The English version of the SWAL-QOL was translated into Chinese according to the well-accepted scale translation procedure.Then 103 patients with dysphagia were tested using the translated Chinese SWAL-QOL.The inter-rater reliability,test-retest reliability,internal consistency reliability,the content validity and construct validity were tested.Results The inter-rater reliability correlation coefficient of the SWAL-QOL was between 0.945-0.990 (P＜0.01).Its test-retest coefficients ranged from 0.965 to 0.992 (P＜0.01).The Cronbach coefficients ranged from 0.708 to 0.933 (P＜0.01).There revealed significant correlation between each item of SWAL-QOL and its domain,with correlation coefficients between 0.723 and 0.982 (P＜0.01).Factor analysis of each item of the 10 domains of SWAL-QOL extracted 10 common factors,which were with a cumulative contribution of 79.029％.Factor analysis of the total score of the 10 dimensions extracted 2 common factors including dysphagia-related quality of life and general quality of life,with a cumulative contribution of 54.718％.Conclusions The Chinese version of SWAL-QOL is reliable and valid.It can be used as an effective measuring tool to evaluate the quality of life of dysphagia patients.