Body composition by bioelectrical impedance, muscle strength, and nutritional risk in oropharyngeal dysphagia patients.

Introduction

oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) has complications such as malnutrition and dehydration. Body composition is an important factor for nutritional status.

Objective

to evaluate the presence of cachexia, phase angle, muscle strength, and nutritional risk according to the type of feeding regimen tolerated by patients, determined with the volume-viscosity swallow test (V-VST).

Methods

this cross-sectional study included hospitalized adults of both sexes with a diagnosis of OD established by the Eating Assessment Tool and V-VST. Nutritional risk status was assesed using the Nutritional Risk Screening-2002 tool. Phase angle and cachexia were determined through bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA), and functional capacity through handgrip strength (HGS) and anthropometric parameters.

Results

seventy-nine patients with a median age of 73 years (56-79 yrs) were included; 79.9 % of patients were categorized at nutritional risk. According to the V-VST, 27 (34.2 %) patients tolerated nectar viscosity; 27 (34.2 %) belonged to the spoon-thick and 25 (31.6 %) to the exclusive tube feeding groups. In the exclusive tube feeding group a lower phase angle (3.7° ± 0.9) and lower HGS of 9 kg (5-15) were observed in comparison to the nectar and spoon-thick groups (in both, 4.6° ± 1.1, p = 0.005), which featured 20 kg (16-31) and 19 kg (14-26), respectively (p = 0.03).

Conclusion

nutritional risk was present in 79.9 % of the study population. BIVA allows to evaluate the integrity of muscle mass and tissue hydration, both related to phase angle. A lower phase angle and HGS were observed in the exclusive tube feeding group. These factors are considered important for prognosis.