title: The Huntington's Disease Dysphagia Scale.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is known about the swallowing disturbances of patients with Huntington's disease; therefore, we developed the Huntington's Disease Dysphagia Scale.
  
  
  METHODS
  The scale was developed in four stages: (1) item generation, (2) comprehension testing, (3) evaluation of reliability, (4) item reduction and validity testing. The questionnaire was presented twice to 50 Huntington's disease patients and their caregivers. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to evaluate whether the severity of swallowing difficulties increased with advancing disease. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to examine the construct validity with the Swallowing Disturbance Questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final version contained 11 items with five response options and exhibited a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.728. The severity of swallowing difficulties was significantly higher in more advanced Huntington's disease. The correlation with the Swallowing Disturbance Questionnaire was 0.734.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We developed a valid and reliable 11-item scale to measure the severity of dysphagia in Huntington's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Leiden, the Netherlands; Huntingtoncentre Topaz Overduin, Katwijk, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anne-Wil
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Heemskerk
authors.forename: Berit M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Verbist
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marinus
authors.forename: Bas
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Heijnen
authors.forename: Elisabeth V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Sjögren
authors.forename: Raymund A C
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Roos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Huntington's disease; dysphagia; measurement; scale; swallowing