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To explore oral intake and quality of life measures among individuals with dysphagia. This cross-sectional study with purposive sampling included 15 individuals with dysphagia. Functional oral intake scale (FOIS) and Dysphagia Quality of Life questionnaire in Marathi (DQOL-QM) were administered on individuals with dysphagia to evaluate oral intake levels and swallow related quality of life respectively. Data was collected using the interview method via tele-mode. Statistical analysis using Spearman's rank correlation revealed significant negative correlation (ρ = - 0.87) between oral intake and overall quality of life of the individuals with dysphagia. This negative impact was observed across all the domains of their quality of life. A considerable negative impact on quality of life was observed with declining oral intake of the individual with dysphagia. As oral intake plays an important role in the quality of life, decisions regarding the mode of feeding must be guided by the preferences of the individual and their family. strategies that enhance oral intake improves quality of life of dysphagic individual., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they do not have any conflict of interest., (© Association of Otolaryngologists of India 2021.)

Caregivers play an important role in providing care for patients with dysphagia and experience various psychosocial issues, but these areas remain unexplored. There is paucity of tools to assess quality of life of caregivers of individuals with dysphagia attending to these cases. Hence, a need was felt to carry out the present study to develop a tool to assess quality of life for caregivers of individuals with dysphagia. Construction of questionnaire was done in Marathi language and validated by native Marathi speakers and face validity by experts. The questionnaire was administered on 30 caregivers of individuals with dysphagia.A detailed case history, demographic information of the caregivers was noted and questionnaire was administered on the caregivers using interview method. The data was subjected to measures of internal consistency and reliability. Statistical analysis revealed a high item to total correlation (0.6-0.92).Internal consistency was found to be high (α = 0.95) while Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was administered for reliability revealing high reliability (ICC = 0.85).The analysis of responses of the caregivers on the statements revealed moderate to high scores for many statements indicating impact of dysphagia on activities of daily living, social aspects, feelings and attitudes and problems faced during feeding. QOLC-M was found to be a tool with high reliability and internal consistency. It could identify the impact of dysphagia on caregiver's QOL highlighting specific problems faced by them., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interestThe authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article., (© Association of Otolaryngologists of India 2021.)