title: Quality of life in swallowing of the elderly patients affected by stroke.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  - The elderly population faces many difficulties as a result of the aging process. Conceptualize and evaluate their life quality is a challenge, being hard to characterize the impact on daily activities and on functional capacity. The stroke is one of the most disabling neurological diseases, becoming a public health problem. As an aggravating result, there is dysphagia, a disorder that compromises the progression of the food from the mouth to the stomach, causing clinical complications to the individual.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  - Characterize the life quality of the elderly swallowing affected by stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  - Cross-sectional study conducted at the University Hospital, attended by 35 elderly with stroke, being 19 women and 16 men, with age between 60 and 90 years old, that self-reported satisfactory overall clinical picture. It was applied the Quality of Life Swallowing protocol. The data were statistically analyzed, by means of ANOVA tests, Spearman correlation, t test, with significance level of 5%.
  
  
  RESULTS
  - The mean age was 69.5 years; as for the scores obtained by the 35 participants in the 11 domains of the protocol, it was observed a change in score indicating severe to moderate impact in quality of life related to self-reported swallowing (31.8% to 59.5%); the domain that most interfered was the feeding time (31.8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  - Elderly affected by stroke that present dysphagia has low scores in quality of life related to swallowing.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil.
authors.forename: Émerson Soares
authors.initials: ÉS
authors.lastname: Pontes
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fonoaudiologia, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil.
authors.forename: Ana Karênina de Freitas Jordão do
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Amaral
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fonoaudiologia, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil.
authors.forename: Flávia Luiza Costa do
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Rêgo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fonoaudiologia, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, ES, Brasil.
authors.forename: Elma Heitmann Mares
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Azevedo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fonoaudiologia, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil.
authors.forename: Priscila Oliveira Costa
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Silva
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology