How is dysphagia conceptualised, assessed, and managed with populations who are culturally diverse: A scoping review

Research demonstrates health disparities for culturally diverse populations who are minority groups within dominant cultural populations. Speech-language pathology practices for dysphagia are often derived from evidence drawn from Western contexts, but there is a need for culturally responsive practices to ensure optimal outcomes. In this scoping review we aimed to explore research on swallowing assessment and management for individuals with dysphagia who are culturally diverse, including how this is understood, the nature of practice, and what gaps exist.

This scoping review followed Arksey and O'Malley's guidelines. A comprehensive search for published and grey literature was conducted across seven databases by two independent reviewers.

The majority of the 57 included papers were studies translating swallowing assessment tools for a different language group. Literature pertaining to assessment and management of dysphagia identified potential impacts of dysphagia on cultural food and mealtime practices, and culturally responsive speech-language pathology practice. Personalised approaches, including ethnographic interviewing, shared decision-making, and backward design that enable co-constructed, culturally-informed dysphagia practice were situated as enhancing speech-language pathologists' capacity to demonstrate culturally responsive approaches.

This scoping review highlights that how speech-language pathology practice is constructed to respond to populations with dysphagia who are culturally diverse is under-explored.