Background: Physical performance improvement through whole-body exercise may have a positive impact on dysphagia via improvement of maximum tongue pressure (MTP).
Aims: The present study aimed to quantitatively analyze whether improvement in physical performance reduces dysphagia by improving MTP in patients with acute heart failure (AHF).
Methods: A total of 146 patients with AHF and dysphagia were included. Dysphagia was defined as a functional oral intake scale (FOIS) score < 6. The short physical performance battery (SPPB) indexed physical performance. A two-wave cross-lagged mediation model was used to examine whether an improvement in SPPB results improves the FOIS score via an improvement in MTP. The SPPB, MTP, and FOIS scores (T1: baseline, T2: hospital discharge) were included in the model.
Results: A total of 146 patients were included in the final analysis. The SPPB result at T1 positively affected MTP (β = 0.150, P = 0.030) and the FOIS score (β = 0.249, P = 0.002) at T2. MTP at T1 also positively affected the FOIS score at T2 (β = 0.189, P = 0.026). Furthermore, the SPPB result indirectly affected the FOIS score by affecting the MTP (indirect effect = 0.028; 95% CI = 0.010, 0.078).
Discussion: This study contributes to the knowledge base regarding the potential of exercise therapy as a new treatment strategy for dysphagia in patients with AHF.
Conclusion: An improvement in SPPB results improved the FOIS score by improving the MTP in patients with AHF.
Keywords: Dysphagia; Heart failure; Physical function; Tongue strength.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.