노인요양시설 뇌졸중 노인을 위한 운동중심 연하훈련 프로그램의 효과

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a training program for swallowing and to test its effect on swallowing capacity and nutritional status among nursing home residents with stroke. Methods: A swallowing training program was developed by literature review, expert validation and a pilot test. A pretest and posttest quasi-experimental study design with nonequivalent control group was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Swallowing training was conducted for thirty minutes, three times a week for 8 weeks. Swallowing capacity including dysphagia screening score, swallowing symptom questionnaire and tongue pressure, and nutritional status including body mass index and mid arm muscle circumference weremeasured at the baseline and at 8 weeks. Results: The exercised-based swallowing training program consisted of oromotor exercise, expiratory muscle strength exercise and effortful swallow. The participants were 77.2 years old on average. At thecompletion of 8-week program, the experimental group showed better scores in dysphagia screening (p=.039) and swallowing symptom questionnaire (p=.004) and a significant increase in tongue pressure (p=.003). Conclusion: The exercised-basedswallowing training program was safely applied to nursing home residents with stroke and showed a significant improvement of swallowing capacity. Further studies are needed to identify its effect on the nutritional status.