ARCHIEVE

Purpose: Dysphagia is a disorder of swallowing and/or feeding. Patients who develop dysphagia may need PEG or NG tube for feeding. PEG is a safer procedure for long-term enteral nutrition in patients with dysphagia. Mostly gastroentererogists place the PEG tube. After placement, if patients receive rehabilitative therapy, they are likely to recover swallowing functions and become tube-independent. SLPs are the professionals that provide rehabilitation therapy for dysphagia patients. Therefore awareness of gastroenterelogists and relatives of PEG tube- patients related to the role of SLP’s in swallowing disorders is very important for intervention. The aim of the study was to explore the awareness of SLPs and SLP’s role in dysphagia. Gastroenterelogists and relatives of PEG tube-fed patients participated in the study. Method: This study was carried out using two questionnaires that researchers devised namely ‘’Gastroentrelogists Awareness of Regarding the SLP’s Role in Dysphagia’’ and ‘’Awareness of Relatives of Patients with PEG Tubes Regarding the SLP’s Role in Dysphagia’’. The questionnaires assesses participants’ awareness of SLPs and their role of in swallowing disorders. The participants were 33 gastroenterelogists working in the hospitals and clinics and 22 relatives of PEG tube-fed patients from various cities in Turkey. Their participation in the study was voluntary. The answers to the two questionnaires were analyzed separately using descriptive statistical methods. The common question in the two questionnaires were compared using Chi-square statistics. Results: The results revealed that gastroenterelogists and relatives of PEG tube-fed patients do not have adequate knowledge about SLPs and SLP’s role in dysphagia. In general, participants share the opinion that SLP deals with stuttering and language disorders. Only 15,2% of the participants think that SLPs also deal with swallowing disorders. Most of the gastroenterelogists think that oral feeding is possible again. %21,2 of gastroenterelogists refer patients who are fed with a feeding tube to an SLP. Unlike gastroenterelogists, most of relatives of patients think that oral feeding is impossible. Also only 1 PEG tube-fed patient was referred to an SLP by the doctor. No significant difference was found between the two groups on the common questions in the two questionnaires. Conclusion: The results of the research showed that gastroenterelogists and relatives of PEG tube-fed patients do not have adequate knowledge about SLP and SLP’s role in dysphagia. Although oral feeding is possible following swallowing therapy, patients and their relatives are not informed and are not referred to speech and language therapist by their doctors. It is recommended that SLPs implement awareness programmes to doctors, especially gastroenterelogist, patients and patients’ relatives regarding the role of SLPs in swallowing therapy.

American Speech Language Hearing Association. About Speech-Language Pathology, www.asha.org/Students/Speech-Language-Pathologists/ adresinden alınmıştır.

Breadner, B. W., Warr-Leeper, G. A., & Husband, S. J. (1987). A Study of Public Awareness of Speech-Language Pathology: Then and Now. Human Communication Canada, 11(2), 5-15.

Cinel, G., Demir, N., Özçelik, U., & Karaduman, A. A. (2013). Çocuklarda yutma disfonksiyonu. Çocuk Sağlığı ve Hastalıkları Dergisi, 56, 89-96.

Howells, S. R., Cornwell, P. L., Ward, E. C., & Kuipers, P. (2020). Client perspectives on living with dysphagia in the community. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 1–12.

Kagaya, H., Okada S., Saitoh, E., Baba M., Yokoyama, M., & Takahashi, H. (2009). Simple swallowing provocation test has limited applicability as a screening tool for detecting aspiration, silent aspiration, or penetration. Dysphagia, 25(1), 6–10.

Kiyani, S., & Butt, A. (2014). Dysphagia; Awareness & Knowledge of Medical Practitioners and Understanding of Role of SLP in its Assessment & Management, Journal of Riphah College of Rehabilitation Sciences, 2(1): 25-29.