Dysphagia and pill swallowing in HIV/AIDS in South Africa: Results of a scoping review.
Alexa Cohen, Jaishika Seedat, Cynthia Sawasawa
PMID 37042519WHAT IT FOUND
Across three included articles, South African adults with HIV/AIDS described difficulty swallowing antiretroviral pills due to side effects, mouth and throat pain, dry mouth, other illnesses, stress and stigma, which reduced adherence.
Speech-language pathology involvement was rare and late.
Key findings
01In the included articles, difficulty swallowing pills and dysphagia were linked to poor adherence to antiretroviral treatment.
02Antiretroviral side effects, including dry mouth, nausea, mouth or throat sores, and pain while swallowing, were reported as barriers to adherence.
03Speech-language pathology involvement was mentioned very little in the reviewed articles, and when involved it was generally late, when swallowing difficulty was severe.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 3 articles were included, so the percentages come from a very small evidence base and cannot be treated as a population estimate. The review did not report the total number of participants in the included articles. It was a scoping review of experiences and barriers, not a test of treatment, so it cannot show whether an intervention improves adherence. It focused on South Africa, so it may not apply to other settings or populations. The authors noted that quality of life was not typically covered in the literature reviewed.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that speech-language pathology treatment improves pill adherence. This review found only three articles, reported experiences and barriers, and said speech-language pathology involvement was rare and late; it did not test an intervention.