Experience of speech pathology and nutritional monitoring of oral feeding in older people from a community-based approach

ABSTRACT Purpose: to describe the changes in the body composition and swallowing of an older-people group from a community-based speech therapy and nutrition program. Methods: a pre-experimental study of a single group was carried out, with prospective timing and pre-post evaluation for three months. The Body Mass Index (BMI), percentage of body fat (�), percentage of muscle mass (%MM), percentage of visceral fat (%VF), swallowing performance, and Swallowing Quality of Life (Swall-QoL) were evaluated. The Spearman correlation coefficient and the Mann-Whitney U test were used, significance level p<0.05. Results: 13 older people participated in the study. The average age of the group was 73.8 years (SD= 4.6). The BMI (pre=28.17; post=28.38), � (pre=38.5; post=38.7), %MM (pre=24.8; post=24.9) and %VF (pre=14.3; post=14.8) did not present significant differences (p>0.05). The scores obtained in the deglutition test was pre=19.15 and post=18.9. An association between BMI and VF (Rho=0.74; p=0.02) was detected. Conclusion: the program represented a community-based instance of health promotion focus on oral feeding of older people.