Kazuyo OGUCHI, Eiichi SAITOH, Masayasu MIZUNO, Mikoto BABA, Mie OKUI, Miho SUZUKI

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine, Fujita Health University

(Received 31 January 2000; accepted 12 May 2000)

Abstract: We developed the "Repetitive Saliva Swallowing Test (RSST)" to safely and simply screen patients for functional dysphagia. We examined the procedure of RSST and set normal values for both the young (N =30) and the elderly (N=30). The normal elderly had significantly fewer swallowing counts than did the normal young (7.4 vs 5.9 counts/30 sec for dry swallow, and 7.7 vs 6.2 counts/30 sec for artificial saliva swallow, respectively). There was no significant difference between the counts of dry swallow and artificial saliva swallow both among the young and the elderly. Swallowing movement could be identified by inspection and palpation of prominentia laryngea. Our study suggested that when the RSST value is less than 3 times/30 sec, the subject should be further investigated for functional dysphagia.

Key words: dysphagia, screening test, elderly