Effectiveness of Bangladeshi recommended thickening agent on oropharyngeal dysphagic stroke patients

Abstract

Stroke is a very common neurological disease. In stroke, it includes so many symptoms, but Oropharyngeal dysphagia is the most common symptom. For this OD people, facing problems regarding malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of treatment also aggravates the situation. OD also represents symptoms like aspiration and choking. Thickening agents serve a crucial role in treating stroke patients with OD. They enhance bolus consistency, improving safer and more effective swallowing for patients. It was a quantitative type of quasi-experimental study using hospital randomization sampling procedure including 18 pretest and 14 posttest of one group of OD patient with 3 weeks of interval. The study was done in specialized hospital (Savar CRP and Mirpur CRP). Eating Assessment Tool was EAT-10 used to measure the pre and post swallowing condition of the patients. SPSS was used for data analysis and for the statistical calculation parametric paired ‗t‘ test has been used. After analyzing the data , the result sows significant difference between pretest and posttest and the study result was positive that the thickening agent is effective. In this study researcher choose thickener at 3 level (mild, Moderate, Extreme) choose as variable. All variable reveal a significant difference in mildly thick p value 0.000 which was <0.05, moderately thick p value 0.000 which was <0.05. And extremely thick p value 0.000 which was also < 0.05. So the study found that thickening agent was effective for oropharyngeal dysphagia among stroke and if any health professionals want to use thickening agent as intervention for OD , then they can. Key Words: Thickening agent, Orophayngeal dysphagia, Aspiration, Stroke