International Journal of Innovative Research in Health Science

Background: Stroke is a significant source of dysphagia causing severe problems like aspiration, malnutrition and decreased quality of life. Early diagnosis and treatment are crucial towards patient outcomes. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of a swallowing function test among stroke patients in selected hospitals. Methodology: It was a quantitative pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest study involving 30 stroke patients that were purposively sampled. The demographic variables and standardized swallowing function assessment tool were used to collect data. The posttest evaluation followed the intervention, and data were analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics and paired t-test. Results: The outcomes did not find any significant difference in baseline swallowing between groups. The study group reported a significant change in swallowing functioning in comparison with a control group (p < 0.001) after intervention. Pretest swallowing scores were not significantly related to demographic variables. Conclusion: The intervention of swallowing function proved to be effective in enhancing swallowing ability in stroke patients and the key factor to this is to ensure that the swallowing ability is assessed and managed early.