Association of Sex Mismatch Between Patients and Speech-Language Therapists with Favorable Outcome in Eating and Swallowing Functions in Dementia Care: A Pilot Study.

PURPOSE

This retrospective observational study explored the hypothesis that sex mismatch between patients and their attending speech-language therapists (STs) would contribute to the recovery of patients' eating and swallowing functions.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The pilot study was conducted in a single medical institution. The participants were inpatients with dementia and dysphagia aged ≥70 years who underwent the established clinical pathway to investigate and treat the causes of their decreased oral intake through a multidisciplinary approach. The participants for analysis consisted of 143 patients (male, n = 58; female, n = 85; mean age, 87 ± 7 years).

RESULTS

At the time of admission and discharge, the food intake level scale (FILS) and functional oral intake scale (FOIS) were not significantly different between the sex-matched (male patient-male ST; female patient-female ST) and sex-mismatched (male patient-female ST; female patient-male ST) groups. However, in the multivariate analysis using binary logistic regression analysis, FILS and FOIS improvement at the level of ≥2 points were significantly affected by sex matching (the sex-mismatched group's odds ratio toward the sex-matched group were 2.25 [95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.00-5.04] and 2.96 [95% CI, 1.36-6.45], respectively). Similarly, patients' sex (female) was identified as a significant factor associated with favor outcomes.

CONCLUSION

In older patients with dementia and dysphagia, interventions with mismatched sex between a patient and an ST can be more effective in improving eating and swallowing functions than interventions with matched sex.