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Published on: March 1, 2015
Evidence to support treatment options for children with swallowing and feeding disorders: A systematic review
Memorie M Gosa1,2, Hillary T Carden3, Courtney C Jacks3
1The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA.
Insights
This review found limited high-quality evidence for pediatric feeding and swallowing therapies. Behavioral strategies show promise, but more research is needed for oral motor, sensory, and pharmaceutical interventions.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Medicine
- Clinical Nutrition
- Speech-Language Pathology
Background:
- Increasing prevalence of pediatric feeding and swallowing disorders necessitates effective multidisciplinary treatments.
- Clinicians utilize various strategies to address these complex pediatric conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review evidence on common strategies for treating pediatric swallowing and feeding problems.
- To evaluate the efficacy of different therapeutic approaches based on published literature.
Main Methods:
- Conducted a systematic search of 10 electronic databases for peer-reviewed literature up to December 2015.
- Included 61 studies of varying methodological quality that reported original data.
Main Results:
- The majority of studies (60/61) focused on behavioral therapies for pediatric feeding and swallowing disorders, reporting mixed findings.
- Limited high-quality (Phase 4) research exists for joint nutrition and behavior interventions, systematic desensitization, and operant conditioning.
Conclusions:
- Insufficient evidence exists to determine the effects of oral motor, sensory, and pharmaceutical therapies on pediatric feeding outcomes.
- Behavioral strategies demonstrate some efficacy in small studies, but high-quality evidence for specific approaches is limited.
Purpose:
A rise in pediatric patients with swallowing and feeding problems has resulted in increased interest in multidisciplinary treatments to address these issues. This evidence based systematic review (EBSR) examined the published evidence for the use of common strategies used by clinicians across disciplines to treat pediatric swallowing and feeding problems.
Methods:
A systematic search of 10 electronic databases was completed to identify relevant, peer reviewed literature published in English prior to December 2015 reporting original data that addressed at least one of the five identified clinical questions.
Results:
Sixty-one studies of varying methodological quality were included. The majority of the included studies (60/61) focused on the use of behavioral therapies to remediate swallowing and feeding disorders in children and reported mixed findings across all of the targeted outcomes.
Conclusion:
There is insufficient quantity of evidence to determine the effects of oral motor, sensory, and pharmaceutical therapies on functional feeding outcomes in pediatric populations. A larger body of phase 1 evidence is available that establishes the efficacy of behavioral strategies to treat some swallowing and feeding difficulties in small cohort and single subject studies. This analysis identified limited high quality (phase 4) research articles that establish the efficacy and benefit of joint nutrition and behavior intervention programs and systematic desensitization and operant conditioning behavioral therapy approaches to improve functional feeding and swallowing outcomes in children.
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