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Drugs Related to Oropharyngeal Dysphagia in Older People

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Abstract

Scientific evidence on the impact of medication on the physiology of swallowing is scarce and mainly based on clinical case reports. To evaluate the association between oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) and chronic exposure to medication in older patients admitted to the acute geriatric unit (AGU) of a secondary hospital, we performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of 966 patients admitted to an AGU from 2008 to 2011. We reviewed (a) diagnosis of OD (assessed with the volume-viscosity swallow test, V- VST); (b) chronic patient medication classified by anatomical, therapeutic, chemical codes; and (c) demographic and clinical data. A univariate analysis was performed to determine which medications were associated with OD. A multivariate analysis adjusting for confounding clinical factors was performed to identify which of those medications were independently associated with OD. The age of patients included was 85.3 ± 6.37 years and 59.4 % were women. A total of 41.9 % presented OD. We found a possible protective effect of beta blocking agents on OD after the multivariate analysis (OR 0.54, 95 % CI 0.35–0.85). None of the categories of drugs was associated with an altered swallowing function after adjusting for confounding variables. The present study is the first one to widely investigate the association between drugs and OD, increasing understanding of their association. The role of beta blockers in OD needs to be further studied as their potentially beneficial effects on the swallowing function in older patients could help to prevent complications.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jane Lewis for reviewing the English of the manuscript. This work has been conducted within the framework of a doctoral thesis in medicine from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Author Contributions

MM and LR: designed and coordinated the study and drafted the manuscript; LC: critical input and revision of the manuscript; EP and MSP: statistical analysis and revision of the manuscript; MC: collected the data. All authors approved the final version of the article.

Financial Support

None of the authors have any conflict of interest nor have received any funding related to the present study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy, Hospital de Mataró, Mataró, Spain

    Marta Miarons & Lluís Campins

  2. Research Unit, Hospital de Mataró, Mataró, Spain

    Elisabet Palomera & Mateu Serra-Prat

  3. Department of Geriatrics, Hospital de Mataró, Mataró, Spain

    Mateu Cabré

  4. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de enfermedades hepáticas y digestivas (CIBERehd), Hospital de Mataró, Mataró, Spain

    Laia Rofes

Authors
  1. Marta Miarons
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  2. Lluís Campins
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  3. Elisabet Palomera
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  4. Mateu Serra-Prat
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  5. Mateu Cabré
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  6. Laia Rofes
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Correspondence to Marta Miarons.

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Miarons, M., Campins, L., Palomera, E. et al. Drugs Related to Oropharyngeal Dysphagia in Older People. Dysphagia 31, 697–705 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-016-9735-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-016-9735-5

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