Adaptation and Assessment of Reliability and Validity of the Greek Version of the Ohkuma Questionnaire for Dysphagia Screening

Abstract

Introduction The Ohkuma questionnaire is a validated screening tool originally used to detect dysphagia among patients hospitalized in Japanese nursing facilities. Objective The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the adapted Greek version of the Ohkuma questionnaire. Methods Following the steps for cross-cultural adaptation, we delivered the validated Ohkuma questionnaire to 70 patients (53 men, 17 women) who were either suffering from dysphagia or not. All of them completed the questionnaire a second time within a month. For all of them, we performed a bedside and VFSS study of dysphagia and asked participants to undergo a second VFSS screening, with the exception of nine individuals. Statistical analysis included measurement of internal consistency with Cronbach's α coefficient, reliability with Cohen's Kappa, Pearson's correlation coefficient and construct validity with categorical components, and One-Way Anova test. Results According to Cronbach's α coefficient (0.976) for total score, there was high internal consistency for the Ohkuma Dysphagia questionnaire. Test-retest reliability (Cohen's Kappa) ranged from 0.586 to 1.00, exhibiting acceptable stability. We also estimated the Pearson's correlation coefficient for the test-retest total score, which reached high levels (0.952; p = 0.000). The One-Way Anova test in the two measurement times showed statistically significant correlation in both measurements (p = 0.02 and p = 0.016). Conclusion The adapted Greek version of the questionnaire is valid and reliable and can be used for the screening of dysphagia in the Greek-speaking patients.

Dysphagia and masticatory performance as a mediator of the xerostomia to quality of life relation in the older population

“…Data collection with objective measures in multiple community-based settings is relatively inconvenient, time consuming, and expensive for a large-scale survey; a questionnaire is a more feasible and economic option. Studies have validated that self-reporting scales for dry mouth and dysphagia provide high validity and reliability [ 22 , 39 ]. Third, because of language barriers, interviewers had to switch between Mandarin and Taiwanese, which may have caused interviewer bias.…”

“…The dysphagia variable was measured using 15 questions in the Ohkuma questionnaire to rapidly screen the community members; examples of questions included “Do you ever have difficulty swallowing?” “Do you ever have difficulty as a result of cough up phlegm during or after a meal?” “Does it take you longer to eat a meal than it used to?” “Do you feel that it is becoming difficult to eat solid foods?” and “Do you ever have difficulty sleeping because of coughing during the night?” [ 22 ]. Possible responses were “obviously” ( frequently ), “slightly” ( sometimes ), or “no” ( never ).…”

Comment on: Zuercher P, et al. Dysphagia in the intensive care unit in Switzerland (DICE) – results of a national survey on the current standard of care

“…Only if the reliability and validity of the survey tool, that is, the questionnaire, were acceptable within the scope of the research, would the survey results be deemed objective, and the reliability and accuracy of the statistics be ensured [2]. Before the data were statistically analysed, it was very necessary to analyse the reliability and validity of the construction of the questionnaire, by calculation of the correlation coefficient [3] and Krumbach coefficient [4], factor analysis [5] and other methods.…”

Effectiveness of the lay health advisor program on oral function and quality of life in aboriginal older adults: A randomized controlled trial

“…Perceived dysphagia, which was defined as a subjective perception of difficulty in swallowing, was evaluated using the swallowing screening scale developed by Ohkuma, 26 and this scale exhibited internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .85. Examples of the questions on this scale are 'Do you ever have difficulty swallowing?'…”