Correlations Between Patient-Reported Dysphagia Screening and Penetration-Aspiration Scores in Head and Neck Cancer Patients Post-oncological Treatment.

The symptom score was created for this study and was not a validated questionnaire. Two patients lacked patient-reported symptom data. Relationships between patient reports and swallowing test scores were weak overall, so the questions did not reliably match clinical findings. The videofluoroscopy scores were made jointly during the examination rather than by blinded independent raters. The study recruited from a tumor board and used telephone screening for swallowing problems, so it may not represent all post-treatment head and neck cancer patients. The study did not test the questions as a screening tool or measure their accuracy for detecting swallowing impairment.

Funded by Stiftelsen Assar Gabrielssons Fond, Cancerfonden, and the Research and development council (SE).

Do not treat these questions as a validated screening tool. The study found only weak relationships overall and did not measure accuracy, so patient reports alone cannot confirm or exclude clinically important swallowing impairment.