Community-based group rehabilitation program for stroke patients with dysphagia on quality of life, depression symptoms, and swallowing function: a randomized controlled trial

Community-based exercise programs have demonstrated potential for implementation in older adults; however, it remains imperative to ascertain whether this strategy will yield comparable benefit in stroke patients with dysphagia. This was a single blinded, randomized, matched pairs clinical trial. Sixty-four stroke patients with dysphagia were recruited from patients who had been discharged the Rehabilitation Department of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. A single blinded, randomized and controlled trial was conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (n = 32) or the control group (n = 32). Patients in the intervention group received health education followed by swallowing function training in community public spaces for 5 days every week over an eight-week period (60 minutes per day). Patients in the control group received swallowing rehabilitation training, and booster educational information about dysphagia, as well as instructions on how to improve quality of life. Swallowing function (Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS) and Standardized Swallowing Assessment (SSA)), depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale-15), and quality of life (Swallowing-Quality of Life, SWAL-QOL) were assessed before and after all the treatment. Before treatment, the two groups did not differ statistically. After the intervention, the swallowing function (SSA and FOIS) showed a significant improvement in both groups (All p