title: Aging-related changes in swallowing, and in the coordination of swallowing and respiration determined by novel non-invasive measurement techniques.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies have shown that the process of swallowing changes with aging, a phenomenon known as presbyphagia. These subtle and subclinical age-related changes make older adults more vulnerable to dysphagia during disease insults. However, there are limited studies of the swallowing process in older adults, because measurements are typically invasive or require exposure to X-rays. In the present study, we used integrated non-invasive measurements to determine aging-related changes of swallowing, and in the coordination of swallowing and respiration for a population of healthy participants.
  
  
  METHODS
  The non-invasive system provided measurements of larynx movement with piezoelectric sensors, submental muscle activity with surface electromyography and respiration-swallowing coordination by measurement of nasal airflow. We recruited 112 healthy participants from the community, 35 in a young-age group (age 20-30 years), 38 in a middle-age group (age 31-50 years) and 39 in an old-age group (age 51-70 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The oropharyngeal swallowing parameters of the old-age group had delayed onset latency and longer swallowing apnea duration relative to the other groups, and these differences were greater for larger boluses. The middle- and old-age groups had less expiratory-expiratory respiratory phase pattern than the young-age group. The probability of piecemeal deglutition was highest in the old-age group and lowest in the young-age group. These results show that the phases of oropharyngeal swallowing and the coordination of swallowing with respiration gradually change with aging.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We used integrated non-invasive measurements to document age-related changes in swallowing, and in the coordination of swallowing and respiration in healthy adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chin-Man
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ji-Yih
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chungli, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chiung-Cheng
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Chun
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.|Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Science, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.|Healthy Aging Research Center, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Alice M K
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.|Healthy Aging Research Center, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Cheng
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Pei
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003679:Deglutition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009960:Oropharynx / Q000502:physiology*; D012119:Respiration; D013957:Thyroid Cartilage / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: aging; elderly; non-invasive; piezoelectric sensor; respiration; surface electromyography; swallowing; thyroid cartilage excursion