Kohei Yamada, DDS, Izumi Kondo, MD, PhD, Kenichi Ozaki, MD, PhD, Yasunori Sumi, DDS,
PhD, Yoshinobu Tanaka, DDS, PhD
Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 4: 1-6, 2013
Purpose: With the objective to develop a standardized
sensory test for food texture, which allows simple diet
evaluation using oropharyngeal sensation in clinical
and domiciliary settings, we added items to an existing
questionnaire and evaluated the reliability and
criterion-related validity of the new instrument.
Methods: Twenty healthy adult volunteers were
instructed to chew and swallow test foods adjusted to
three grades of food property using the enzyme
homogeneous permeation or freeze-dry method, and
then respond to a questionnaire containing nine items.
Results: The highest κ, which is the statistic value for
reliability, was 0.523 for question 1 and the lowest κ
was 0.281 for question 2. For criterion-related validity,
a significant relationship was observed between
multiple questionnaire items and “hardness stress”
(p < 0.05), whereas almost no significant correlation
was observed between the questionnaire items and
“adhesiveness” or “cohesiveness” (p >- 0.05).
Conclusion: Criterion-related validity was confirmed
for several questionnaire items in relation to “hardness
stress”. Future studies are required to explore
questionnaire items related to “adhesiveness” and
“cohesiveness” and to improve the reliability of the
instrument.
Key words: dysphagia, food texture, questionnaire, oropharyngeal sensation