National survey of the prevalence of swallowing difficulty and tube feeding use as well as implementation of swallowing evaluation in long-term care settings in Japan.

AIM: The present study was carried out to clarify tube feeding utilization and the prevalence of swallowing difficulty among residents in geriatric long-term settings, and to elucidate the implementation of swallowing assessment at four different types of facilities in Japan.
METHODS: We mailed a questionnaire to a total of 4334 facilities.
RESULTS: We received responses from 1137 (26.2%) facilities, including 440 (29.0%) from 1517 nursing homes, 275 (29.2%) from 941 long-term care facilities, 205 (18.1%) from 1134 sanatorium medical facilities and 217 (29.2%) from 742 rehabilitation hospitals. The number of tube-fed residents per 100 beds in each facility was 11.6 at the nursing homes, 7.4 at the long-term care facilities, 36.3 at the sanatorium medical facilities and 7.9 at the rehabilitation facilities. The number of residents per 100 beds with swallowing difficulty was 23.7 in the nursing homes, 15.6 in the long-term care facilities, 19.2 in the sanatorium medical facilities and 15.4 in the rehabilitation hospitals. The percentages of facilities that assessed swallowing difficulty were 31.8% of the nursing homes, 63.0% of the long-term care facilities, 77.9% of the sanatorium medical facilities and 91.7% of the rehabilitation hospitals.
CONCLUSION: A large number of residents using a feeding tube and with difficult swallowing were observed in geriatric long-term settings without adequate evaluation of swallowing function.