TRANSLATION AND VALIDATION OF THE SPANISH VERSION OF THE EAT-10 (EATING ASSESSMENT TOOL-10) FOR THE SCREENING OF DYSPHAGIA

Rationale: The Ealing Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10) is a self-administered, analogical, direct-scoring screening tool for dysphagia. Objective: To translate and adapt the EAT-10 into Spanish, and to evaluate its psychometric properties. Methods: After the translation and back-translation process of the EAT-10 ES, a prospective study was performed in adult patients with preserved cognitive and functional abilities. Patients in 3 clinical situations, diagnosed with dysphagia (DD), patients at risk of dysphagia (RD), and patients not at risk of dysphagia (SRD) were recruited from 3 settings: a hospital Nutritional Support Unit (USN), a nursing home (RG) and primary care centre (CAP). Patients completed the EAT-10 ES during a single visit. Both patients and researchers completed a specific questionnaire regarding EAT-10 ES comprehension. Results: 65 patients were included (age 75 +/- 9.1 y), 52.3% women. Mean time of administration was 3.8 +/- 1.7 minutes. 95.4% of patients considered that all tool items were comprehensible and 72.3% found it easy to assign scores. EAT-10 ES' internal consistency, Cronbach's Alpha coefficient was 0.87. A high correlation was observed between all tool items and global scores (p < 0.001). Mean score for patients in group DD was 15 +/- 8.9 points, 6.7 +/- 7.7 points in group RD, and 2 +/- 3.1 points in group SRD. Male patients, previously diagnosed of dysphagia or patients from the NSU showed significantly higher scores on the EAT-10 ES (p < 0.001). Conclusion: EAT-10 ES has proven to be reliable, valid and to have internal consistency. Is it an easy-to-understand tool that can be completed quickly, making it useful for the screening of dysphagia in routine clinical practice.