A validation study of the Facial-Oral Tract Therapy Swallowing Assessment of Saliva.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the validity and reliability of the Swallowing Assessment of Saliva in detection of aspiration risk.


METHODS
Validation study.


METHODS
Inpatient neurorehabilitation centre.


METHODS
Adult patients with acquired brain injury. A total of 43 patients for concurrent validity and 33 other patients for inter-rater reliability.


METHODS
Concurrent validity was established with blinded Swallowing Assessment of Saliva and endoscopic evaluation within a 24-hour time interval. Inter-rater reliability was established with two blinded Swallowing Assessments of Saliva within a one-hour time interval.


METHODS
The Swallowing Assessment of Saliva is a seven-item scale with a combination of swallowing and non-swallowing items. It is based on the Facial-Oral Tract Therapy approach.


RESULTS
The Swallowing Assessment of Saliva had a sensitivity of 91%, 95% confidence interval (CI) (59; 100), a specificity of 88% %, 95% CI (71; 97) and a kappa coefficient of 0.87 ±0.17 in detection of aspiration risk. Furthermore, analyses showed that experienced and inexperienced occupational therapists performed equally in detection of aspiration risk.


CONCLUSIONS
The Swallowing Assessment of Saliva is a simple, sensitive and reliable assessment for detecting aspiration risk in patients with acquired brain injury.
Hammel Neurorehabilitation Centre and University Research Clinic, Hammel, Denmark Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Jemo@sund.ku.dk.
Jesper
J
Mortensen
Hammel Neurorehabilitation Centre and University Research Clinic, Hammel, Denmark.
Ditte
D
Jensen
Hammel Neurorehabilitation Centre and University Research Clinic, Hammel, Denmark.
Annette
A
Kjaersgaard
D000368:Aged; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003679:Deglutition; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012463:Saliva
Dysphagia; Facial-Oral Tract Therapy; assessment; brain injury; validity