Development of the Pediatric Dysphagia Risk Screening Instrument (PDRSI)

Abstract

Purpose: Develop a screening tool to identify children at risk of dysphagia within hospitals. Method: The Pediatric Dysphagia Risk Screening Instrument (PDRSI), which consists of 23 questions, was developed by speech therapists, based on a review of academic articles and was intended to be answered by those responsible for the children in the hospital. The PDRSI was sent for expert review, in addition to realizing a pilot study. To check the validity criteria, PDRSI was answered by those responsible for the hospitalized children. Subsequently, the children went through a clinical evaluation of deglutition applying the Pediatric Dysphagia Assessment Protocol (PDAP). Each child's guardian signed a consent form. The subjects were divided into two groups (with dysphagia and those with normal swallowing). A relation between PDRSI questions and the PDAP outcome was observed, using the Person chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. The cutoff point for the presence of risk was defined for dysphagia through the ROC curve. The reliability of PDRSI was verified by the Cronbach α coefficient. Results: The sample consisted of 40 children with a median age of 3.7 months. There was a statistically significant association in eight items of the questionnaire. The internal consistency of PDRSI was 0.828. The cutoff point for risk for dysphagia was five points (sensitivity = 100% and specificity = 80%). Conclusion: Due to the satisfactory results found, the validation process of PDRSI should continue