Patient characteristics associated with meeting treatment goals following dysphagia treatment during a Skilled Nursing Facility stay

Research Objectives: Over 40% of individuals in an institutionalized setting, such as skilled nursing facilities (SNF), have dysphagia. Swallowing difficulties are associated with malnutrition, dehydration, pneumonia, and death. Thus, improving a person with dysphagia’s swallowing ability is essential to SNF care. This study aimed to identify SNF patient characteristics associated with meeting treatment goals post-dysphagia treatment.

Design: Secondary analysis of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association National Outcome Measurement Systems SNF Dataset from January 2018-July 2022.

Setting: SNFs in the US.

Participants: Patients receiving dysphagia treatment (N=2,957).

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: The outcome was whether a patient was documented as meeting their goal following dysphagia treatment. Patient characteristics included demographics (age, race, ethnicity, gender), funding source (Medicare Part A, Managed Care, Medicare Part B, and other), length of stay (LOS), and the total number of speech-language pathology sessions. Descriptive statistics were assessed as mean ± standard deviation for continuous variables and frequencies and proportions for categorical variables. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify patient characteristics associated with adjusted odds for meeting the treatment goal.

Results: 47.7% of patients met their goal following dysphagia treatment. Males were less likely to meet their goals (OR=0.71, CI=0.62-0.83) than females. Patients with Medicare Part-B (OR=2.10, CI=1.75-2.53) and Medicaid (OR= 1.61, CI=1.13-2.3) exhibited higher odds of meeting their goals than those with Medicare Part-A. Each day spent in the SNF was associated with 1% higher odds (CI=1.00-1.02) of meeting goals.

Conclusions: We found that gender, funding source, and length of stay were associated with SNF residents with dysphagia meeting their treatment goals. These results can be used for treatment planning and advising SNF patients receiving dysphagia services.

Author(s) Disclosures: No disclosures.