Swallowing Difficulties Reported by Adults Infected with HIV/AIDS Attending a Hospital Outpatient Clinic in Gauteng, South Africa

Abstract

Objective: Swallowing difficulties can exert a profound effect on quality of life, may result in reduced nutritional intake and place individuals at risk of aspiration. However, there is little data available on the swallowing difficulties occurring within the HIV/AIDS population in South Africa. A descriptive study was therefore conducted to document the presence of reported swallowing difficulties in a sample of adults with HIV. Patients and Methods: One-to-one semi-structured interview schedules were administered to 120 adults with HIV attending a clinic in Gauteng, and medical records were evaluated to document the presence of reported swallowing difficulties. Results: Participants described a range of swallowing difficulties and the number of swallowing difficulties reported by participants was negatively correlated with CD4 count. Swallowing difficulties were significantly associated with various opportunistic diseases and related medical pathologies. Prescribed medications were associated with reported swallowing difficulties. Treatment of swallowing difficulties was mainly medical in nature. Swallowing difficulties had affected quality of life. Conclusions: From the results it was concluded that speech therapists have a role to play in the assessment and treatment of swallowing difficulties in individuals with HIV/AIDS.

Atuação fonoaudiológica em pacientes com síndrome da imunodeficiência adquirida e queixa de deglutição – análise retrospectiva de prontuários

“…Contrary to what has been indicated in the literature (11,12) , patients in this study sample did not report odynophagia.…”

“…Overall, the results of this study agree with the observations from the literature which indicate that AIDS patients present with structural and functional changes related to swallowing, (11,12) and principally, in the sample studied, functional abnormalities in swallowing. Contrary to what has been indicated in the literature (11,12) , patients in this study sample did not report odynophagia.…”

“…Facial lipoatrophy consists of progressive loss of facial fat, particularly malar fat (Bichat fat) and temporal fat (2) . Among carriers of the AIDS virus, the alterations found are highlighted in the area of speech-language pathology; mouth, pharynx and esophagus infections; functional abnormalities of swallowing; structural abnormalities of the oral cavity, pharynx, and esophagus; and odynophagia (11,12) , which may result in swallowing disturbances,.…”

“…To date, we have found few studies in the literature on the specific speech therapy approach to these individuals. The majority of the studies strive to present the characterization of co-morbidities, with regard to oropharyngeal dysphagia (11,12,13,14) . Others deal with esophageal dysphagia (15,16) ; however, no studies were identified on the specific speech therapy treatment for this population.…”

Swallowing abnormalities in HIV infected children: an important cause of morbidity

“…Swallowing disorders, often unrecognized in AIDS and other chronic diseases, significantly reduce quality of life [1] and increase morbidity and mortality: nutrition is adversely affected [2], the ability to take medication is reduced [3] and serious complications such as aspiration pneumonia [4] may occur. The causes of swallowing disorders are multi-factorial and include infections of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus, functional abnormalities of swallowing, and structural abnormalities of the oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus.…”