Validation of the Persian translation of the swallowing disturbance questionnaire in Parkinson's disease patients

Dysphagia,as a common finding in parkinson's disease (pd) patients,was estimated to be present in 80-95% of this population during different stages of the disease. the swallowing disturbance questionnaire (sdq) was created as a self-rated dysphagia screening tool in pd. according to the guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation,persian version of this questionnaire (sdq-p) was developed. 59 persian patients (39 men and 20 women) participated in the study. they responded to the sdq-p and underwent videofluoroscopic swallowing study (vfss). aspiration during vfss was compared with questionnaire results for each individual. cronbach's alpha coefficient for the questionnaire was 0.86 and based on sdq-p 15 patients (25.4%) were dysphagic,while 10 patients (16.9%) showed aspiration during vfss. sdq-p sensitivity and specificity in predicting aspiration were 96.7 and 91.2%; therefore,the sdq-p could be a prognostic tool for aspiration. the positive predictive value (ppv),the negative predictive value (npv),and the pre- and posttest probabilities of aspiration were 0.67,1,16.9%,and 66.7%,respectively. in summary,this study demonstrated the reliability and also the feasibility of sdq-p for screening of aspiration in iranian patients with pd. further evaluation of sdq-p in larger subject population would be suggested. © 2014 ali rajaei et al.