A Scoping Review of the Evidence for the Use of Screening Tools in People With Intellectual Disabilities With Dysphagia

JARID

O'Leary, L., Maine, A., et al. (2023).

JARID, 36(3), 429-447.

This scoping review investigates the validity of using dysphagia and feeding assessment tools to screen individuals with intellectual disabilities with dysphagia and/or feeding difficulties.

Strategic Research and Knowledge Exchange Fund (Scotland)

1984 to April 26, 2021

Primary quantitative research studies

7

<div>The following psychometrics were reported for screening tools for dysphagia and feeding problems in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID):</div> <div> <ul> <li><strong>The Dysphagia Disorder Survey (DDS</strong>) demonstrated the most potential as a reliable and sensitive dysphagia screening tool for individuals with ID. In single studies, the DDS has a sensitivity of 95%, adequate internal consistency, superior sampling adequacy, and demonstrated an association with the severity of motor impairment.</li> <li><strong>The Behavioral Assessment Scale of Oral Functions in Feeding (BASOFF)</strong> demonstrated moderate test-retest reliability (0.68-0.84).</li> <li><strong>The Screening Tool of Feeding Problems (STEP)</strong> demonstrated internal consistency that was below acceptable levels in one study.</li> <li><strong>The Choking Risk Assessment </strong>demonstrated moderate internal consistency (0.65) between choking and non-choking individuals in one study.</li> <li><strong>The signaleringlijst Verslikken (SV)</strong>, a Dutch checklist-based screening tool, demonstrated a sensitivity of 54% in one study, with a proportion of agreement of 0.59 between the SV and the DDS.&nbsp;</li> </ul> <div>Additional research is indicated due to a small number of located studies and the limited evaluation of the psychometric properties of dysphagia screening tools for this population&nbsp;</div> </div>