Development and reliability of the Korean version of the Feeding Abilities Assessment.

The 65 participants were only from nursing homes in the metropolitan area, so the results may not apply to people with dementia who live at home or in hospitals. All participants had to be able to eat without physical defects, had no swallowing problem or stroke, and could communicate, so the tool was not tested in people who cannot feed themselves or who have swallowing problems. The test-retest analysis used 20 participants and the inter-rater analysis used 12 participants; the main internal-consistency analysis used 65 participants. The study did not include people across early, middle, and late stages of dementia, so it does not show how the tool works as the disease progresses. Content validity was based on 10 experts. The original FAA author noted that if subjects could perform all items and get a score of zero, a consistent score could lead to high internal consistency.

Do not use the K-FAA as a general feeding test for all people with dementia or as proof that an intervention improves eating. It was only tested in 65 nursing-home residents who could already eat without physical defects, had no swallowing problem or stroke, and could communicate.