Swallowing dysfunction between the community-living older adults with and without comorbid conditions using Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROM).

• To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study from India that compared the swallowing function in older adults with and without comorbid conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, asthma, and others. • The swallowing issues increase with the aging, although the geriatric population may not strongly report those changes clinically. • Older adults generally do not show up any concern with respect to swallowing functions in their daily living, their nutritional & health status get compromised thereby leading to a poor quality of life. The present study aimed to investigate older adults' perspective on their swallowing physiology using a PROM tool. The study further explored the swallowing issues among older adults with and without comorbid conditions. One hundred twenty-two (122) participants participated in the e-survey. A questionnaire was developed to assess the swallowing deficits among older adults, and Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10) was administered to assess the PROM. The results revealed that 40% of older adults with comorbid conditions had EAT-10 scores greater than 3, suggesting swallowing deficits. A significant difference was observed between the two groups with respect to swallowing deficits, as reported on EAT-10. Based on the results, it can be delineated that swallowing deficits emerge with aging. More of older adults with comorbid conditions reported swallowing deficits in comparison to those without comorbid conditions. Hence, their nutritional and health status gets compromised, leading to poor quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]