Stroke survivors often receive spousal support for post-stroke impairments. The quality of spousal caregiving and couples’ wellbeing can suffer from post-stroke relationship changes and caregiver burden. Because swallowing impairment (dysphagia) is common post-stroke and spouses providing dysphagia care may experience burden, it is also important to explore whether relationship changes post-stroke are associated with dysphagia outcomes. The purpose of this study was to describe stroke survivor-spouse relationships post-stroke and explore whether relationship congruence is associated with dysphagia-related caregiver burden or swallowing-related quality of life (SWAL-QoL). Twenty-nine survivor-spouse couples completed a relationship questionnaire with 13 Likert scale questions (15 for spouses), analyzed for frequency of agreement and disagreement, and 2 open-ended questions regarding relationship strengths and possible improvements, analyzed thematically. Correlations were analyzed between relationship congruence (the absolute magnitude of difference between total scores of corresponding couples) and dysphagia-related caregiver burden score and SWAL-QoL using Spearman’s correlations. The majority (≥70%) of survivors and spouses responded positively to questions regarding closeness, care/affection, and communication in their relationship. Similarly, affection (41% survivors, 31% spouses) and communication (14% survivors, 17% spouses) were the first and second most described relationship strengths; spouses also identified honesty as the third most common strength (14%). Many participants were unsure of how the relationship could be improved (34% survivors, 31% spouses). Relationship congruence was not significantly correlated with dysphagia-related caregiver burden (rs = -0.273, p = 0.076) or SWAL-QoL (rs = -0.133, p = 0.246). Future research should assess how dysphagia affects relationships. This could provide further nuance regarding the association between spousal relationships and dysphagia outcomes and potentially inform future interventions.

The purpose of this study was to collate and summarize the content covered in published literature describing speech-language pathology management of adult patients with COVID-19 in the acute hospital setting as of February 2022. This review serves as an updated review of the initial recommendations to guide speech-language pathology management for adults with COVID-19 in the acute hospital setting previously provided by Namasivayam-MacDonald and Riquelme in July of 2020. This scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Scoping Review Extension protocol. We searched for relevant peer-reviewed articles in the following electronic databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL. The article review process was conducted using Covidence. Our searches yielded a combined total of 3019 unique citations, of which 54 were accepted for full-text review. Thirty-seven of the 54 studies were review articles, recommendations, or opinion pieces. This translates to mostly low levels of evidence (i.e., Levels VI and VII) and a grade of ‘D’ when applying the American Society of Plastic Surgeons grade recommendation scale for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, meaning there is little or no systematic empirical evidence available. The remaining 17 provided empirical data, which translates to higher levels of evidence and a grade of ‘B’. The empirical data shared in this scoping review provide support for the ongoing role of the SLP in the acute care setting and the impact COVID-19 and its variants have on the underlying systems for communication and swallowing. This document serves as further proof of the need for ongoing research into the clinical presentations of patients with speech-language, cognitive and/or swallowing deficits resulting from COVID-19, as well as into systems of care that will provide the best outcomes in their rehabilitation.