Background: In worldwide, 16.9 million cases of stroke were reported in 2010. It has increased by 68% since 1990. In 2016, there were 5.5 million deaths attributable to cerebrovascular disease worldwide (2.7 million deaths from ischemic stroke and 2.8 million deaths from hemorrhagic stroke). Furthermore, dysphagia is one of the most common complication and occurs 35-78% of patients with stroke. Specifically, dysphagia occurs in 51-100% of the brain stem stroke patients. Moreover, it could be the independent factor to predict mortality. In other words, it directly impacts the quality of life and decreases social activity.
Incidence of cardiovascular disease and stroke have been increasing related to instability of economy, urbanization, bad lifestyle and stress. As a result of that, dysphagia has increased as well and is becoming one of the pressing issue of health care. It results malnutrition and prolonged the hospital stays. Unfortunately, its diagnosis and treatment are still not clearly defined yet.
Many researchers have investigated patients’ treatment outcome using a single treatment. In other word, researchers have studied the comparison of the separate results of electric stimulation and traditional swallowing therapies. In this study, we studied the results of combination therapy of traditional swallowing and muscle stimulation, and we aimed to identify the benefits of the combined therapeutic approach and to propose the effective, non-invasive methods for patients. Objective: We aimed to study treatment outcome and quality of life among stroke patients with dysphagia. Material and Methods: The study was conducted on a hospital-based, cross-sectional method. Study participants were obtained from Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolian University for the Nationalities between July 2018 and March 2019. All patients were divided into the three treatment groups. 150 dysphagic patients were evaluated by Swallowing Related Quality of Life (SWL-QOL) Scale before and after the treatment. Results: In total, 150 participants (mean age=59.70±9.55 years) aged between 34-77 were obtained in this study. There were no statistically significant differences between the three groups in age (p=0.609).The data showed statistically significant positive treatment effect for all three groups (p=0.0001).The SWAL-QOL score was 39.25±3.50 in A group, 39.10±3.54 in B group, 42.12±4.55 in C group after the treatment. The SWAL-QOL score shows statistically significant difference, after the treatment (p=0.0001). Conclusions Rehabilitation treatment combined with neuromuscular electrical simulation appears better outcome than nerve or muscular stimulation combined with rehabilitation among stroke patients with dysphagia.