Aw. Rademaker et al., OROPHARYNGEAL SWALLOW EFFICIENCY AS A REPRESENTATIVE MEASURE OF SWALLOWING FUNCTION, Journal of speech and hearing research, 37(2), 1994, pp. 314-325
The purpose of this investigation was to correlate oropharyngeal swall
ow efficiency (OPSE), a summary measure of swallowing function, with i
ts component variables. Videofluorographic assessment of oropharyngeal
swallow resulted in the measurement of multiple measures of swallow f
unction in five patient populations and a group of normal volunteers.
In total, 759 swallows were studied in 149 persons. Specific dimension
s of impairment were identified in the patient groups. Multiple regres
sion analyses were used to relate multiple component variables to OPSE
. In patient groups with distinct swallow impairments, OPSE was shown
to be representative of the dimensions of impairment. In patient group
s with limited impairment and in normal volunteers, the strongest corr
elates of OPSE were bolus transit times. In all groups, at least four
variables were significantly related to OPSE and the squared multiple
correlation coefficients ranged from 76% to 89%. We conclude that orop
haryngeal swallow efficiency is a representative summary measure of sw
allowing function across populations characterized by a wide range of
swallowing impairment.