Reliability and Confidence of Dynamic Imaging Grade of Swallowing Toxicity (DIGEST) Rating Among Research and Clinical Speech Pathologists Before and After Implementation of a Training Manual: A Multi-site Study.

ABSTRACT: DIGEST is a validated, open-source method to grade the severity of pharyngeal dysphagia from the modified barium swallow (MBS) study. Dissemination and implementation of DIGEST is rising, making it critical to understand reliability and facilitators of accurate implementation among users. The aim was to assess reliability of the tool among speech-language pathology (SLP) raters practicing at multiple sites before and after review of a DIGEST training manual and evaluate confidence of DIGEST use pre-and post-training. Thirty-two SLPs from 5 sites participated in a blinded longitudinal DIGEST rating study. Raters were provided a standardized training set of MBS (n = 19). Initial SLP ratings (round 1, R1) were followed by a 2-4 week break before raters rated a re-keyed MBS set (round 2, R2).

SUBMITTER: Barbon CEA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11847951 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature