Abstract:
The purpose of this descriptive research were to study dysphagia in older person with stroke and to study the relationships between age, cognitive function, activities of daily living, awareness of symptom of dysphagia, severity of stroke and pathological brain location factors and dysphagia in older persons with stroke. Subject consisted of 88 hospitalized older persons with stroke in Thammasat University Hospital and Police General Hospital, and were selected using multistage random sampling technique. Research instruments were demographic questionnaires, MMSE -Thai 2002, Bartheal ADL Index, Awareness of symptom of dysphagia, NIHSS and GUSS which were tested for content validity and reliability. The reliabilities of MiniMMSE -Thai 2002, Barthel ADL Index, Awareness symptom of dysphagia, NIHSS, were .84, .94, .92, .73 and the reliabilities of GUSS were .91 and .80 repectively. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearsons Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, and Point biserial Correlation Coefficient. Major findings were follows: 1. Fifty nine percent of older persons with stroke had dysphagia 2. Age and severity of stroke were significantly positive correlated with dysphagia in older person with stroke at the level of .05 (r = .257; .820 respectively) 3. Activities of daily living and awareness symptom of dysphagia were significantly negative correlated with dysphagia in older person with stroke at the level of .05 (r = -.795; -.657 respectively) 4. Cognitive function was significantly correlated with dysphagia in older person with stroke at the level of .05 (rpb = .581) 5. Pathological brain location was not significantly correlated with dysphagia in older person with stroke.