Older people

Whilst dysphagia can occur across age groups it is most common in older people who are more prone to the causative diseases and age-related changes in salivary gland function¹⁶.

It has been estimated that 35-68% of older patients have some degree of swallowing dysfunction^{4 5} impacting not only on their ingestion of food and drink, but also on their quality of life and the administration of their medication^{6 7}. As the growing older population already accounts for one third of the UK’s prescribing volume¹⁷ many believe that dysphagia is becoming an increasingly significant problem in terms of medicine administration and therapy:

• Sixty eight per cent (n=333) of patients responding to a survey needed to open a capsule or crush a tablet to swallow their medication, and a similar proportion (69%; n=305) admitted to not taking a tablet or capsule because it proved hard to swallow. Seventy-two per cent of patients and carers (n=218) stated that their doctor or nurse never asks if they have difficulties taking tablets or capsules before writing their prescriptions¹⁶.
• An audit of 171 patients over the age of 75 in a primary care setting in England found that 11% of patients reported a problem with swallowing medication¹⁸.
• A large survey of 7000 Norwegian general practice patients found that 26% of patients reported difficulty swallowing tablets¹⁹.
• A survey of nurses (n=540) employed in independent UK nursing homes revealed that 15% of all residents had difficulty swallowing tablets and capsules⁷⁰.