The average Australian swallows 500-700 times a day. That’s around three times an hour during sleep, once per minute while awake and even more during meals.
Most Australians are unaware how difficulty with swallowing can be frightening and life threatening. It’s why on Wednesday 16 March 2022, speech pathologists and final year speech pathology students at the WA Centre for Rural Health in Geraldton are campaigning to promote Swallowing Awareness Day.
Swallowing Awareness Day 2022 is an opportunity to bring attention to swallowing disorders and to connect people with speech pathologists, the professionals who can help. Speech Pathologists assess and treat people with Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) – pronounced ‘dis-fay-juh’.
The theme for Swallowing Awareness Day in 2022 is: ‘Dysphagia. A difficult diagnosis to swallow!’
Around 15‐30 per cent of people aged 65+ living in the community have a swallowing difficulty, with that figure rising to over 50 per cent for older Australians living in a nursing home. And after falls, choking is the second biggest killer of nursing home residents.
Kathryn Fitzgerald, Senior Lecturer and speech pathologist at the WA Centre for Rural Health said it is estimated around 1 million Australians have difficulty with swallowing. Swallowing disorders remain largely invisible, poorly understood by the general community, and rarely addressed in government policy.
Swallowing problems can mean food, drinks or saliva gets into the lungs (aspiration) and this can cause lung infections (pneumonia). Severe swallowing complications can lead to death, while other swallowing complications can lead to poor nutrition, dehydration, health complications, and social isolation.
The cost to affected individuals is much more than added health costs and includes limitations to their participation in the wider society and negative impacts on their social and emotional wellbeing. The cost to the wider community includes increased costs through longer hospital stay.
Australians with undiagnosed swallowing difficulties are frequently referred to other health practitioners — often for expensive and invasive investigations — when a speech pathologist could readily manage the problem.
Mrs Fitzgerald said “A swallowing problem can occur at any stage of life. Swallowing is a skill developed from infancy.”
“Babies born prematurely or children with abnormalities with the structure of their head, neck and face, such as cleft lip or palate can have difficulty feeding.”
“Around half of those who have a stroke will have a swallowing problem,” added Mrs Fitzgerald.
Sixty-nine per cent of people with Parkinson’s disease will have swallowing difficulties, as will a quarter of patients with Multiple Sclerosis and nearly half of people who have had treatment for head and neck cancer.
“Swallowing Awareness Day is an opportunity for all of us to learn more about swallowing difficulties and how they impact on the lives of our friends, neighbours and our wider community.”
Speech pathologists are the professionals who assess and manage dysphagia.
“At the WA Centre for Rural Health, our speech pathology students see clients in our student clinics as well as providing speech pathology services for dysphagia in aged care settings.
“There are several public and private speech pathology services in the Midwest supporting those with dysphagia and I encourage anyone to get in touch with a speech pathology service if they have any questions or concerns.”