Biofeedback and Exercise Load Affect Accuracy of Tongue Strength Exercise Performance.

The participants were healthy older adults with no swallowing difficulty and no diagnosed weakness of the tongue, so the results say nothing directly about people with dysphagia or reduced tongue strength. All of the regression models explained only a small amount of the variation in outcomes (4.4% to 8.0%), so the predictors found are weak. Home exercise accuracy and adherence were self-reported on a log, which may not reflect what people actually did. Home accuracy could only be measured in the groups who had biofeedback, so there is no comparison with the groups exercising without it. The confidence and motivation questions were worded in a positive direction and were often asked by the same investigator who trained the participants, which may have pushed answers upward. The study looked at one exercise only (tongue strength exercise), and split intensity into just two levels, so it cannot say anything about other swallowing exercises or other dose levels. Only one form of biofeedback (visual display on a tablet) was used, so different feedback types might behave differently.

The paper names Encompass Therapies as the funder. The text supplied does not state what role the funder had in designing, running or writing up the study, and no other conflicts are declared.

Do not conclude that hitting the exercise target does not matter for your patients. These participants had no swallowing problem and were already accurate, with 96.4% of training pushes and 95.5% of home pushes inside the target range. Nothing here tells you what happens in patients with weak tongues or fatigue, which the authors say still needs testing.