The correlation between cognitive function and dysphagia in stroke patients

Background: Dysphagia and cognitive decline are frequently found in stroke patients. Dysphagia can reduce the patients’ quality of life and increase hospital stays and the risk of death. Aim: To investigate the correlation between cognitive function and dysphagia in stroke patients. Methods: A total of 37 stroke patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia participated in this cross-sectional study. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to assess their cognitive levels. In addition, the swallowing function of patients was assessed using the Mann Assessment Swallowing Ability (MASA). Results: Most of patients (62.2%) were male, and the mean ± standard deviation of patients’ age was 62± 8. The results showed that 35.1% of patients had impaired cognitive function, and 56.8 % had severe dysphagia. Moreover, there was a fair positive correlation between MMSE and MASA with a correlation coefficient equal to 0.373 (P = 0.023), indicating that the severity of dysphagia increases with increasing cognitive decline. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that cognitive function may have a role in the severity of dysphagia in stroke patients.