The timed water test of swallowing: Reliability, validity, and normative data from Indian population

Dysphagia post-stroke represents a substantial health issue. The rates of pneumonia are lesser among those individuals who have passed a dysphagia screening test. Only few among the existing screening tests meet the required standards; the timed water swallow test (TWST) is one among them. The purpose of the study was to establish normative data for the TWST in Indian population.

The present study involved 480 typical individuals in the age range of 8-80.11 years. All the participants performed TWST and indices of volume per swallow, time per swallow, and swallow capacity were obtained for the tasks of normal and rapid swallow across age and gender.

In the first phase of the study, normative data were obtained and summarized by age and gender. The second phase of the study dealt with additional analyses on measures of reliability and validity. Two-way mixed ANOVA was performed with age and gender as the between-group variables, and normal and rapid swallowing as the within-group variables.

Normative values for the performance of Indian population on TWST were obtained. The results revealed a significant difference for all the three indices of swallow performance across age, gender, and type of swallowing. These norms can be used as a screening tool for identifying swallowing dysfunction.