[Reliability and validity of the Chinese Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) in evaluation of acute stroke patients with dysphagia].

OBJECTIVE: To study the reliability and validity of the Chinese Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) in evaluation of acute stroke patients with dysphagia.


METHODS: The inpatients of stroke were assessed with Chinese EAT-10. As a golden standard for evaluation of dysphagia, videofluoroscopic swallow study (VFSS) test was used to judge the reliability and validity of EAT-10.


RESULTS: A total of 130 qualified questionnaires were collected. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for Chinese EAT-10 scale was 0.845. The total score of each item was related. The lowest or highest correlation coefficient for the item 2 or 3 was 0.271 or 0.772. The retest reliability was greater than 0.7, which met the requirements. According to the investigator consistency reliability test, the value collected from the investigator in the item 2 kept constant. The consistent correlation coefficient of the remaining nine items was more than 0.7. The consistency between each item and the mean score was high. The EAT-10 with the cut-off point at 1 was an optimal cut-off point. With the cut-off value of 1 (EAT-10 score ≥ 1), the sensitivity and specificity for EAT-10 was 77.9% and 66.1%, respectively. The positive predictive value (PPV) and negative value (NPV) was 71.6% and 73.2%, respectively, with 2.30 LHR+ and 0.33 LHR- for dysphagia. 


CONCLUSION: The Chinese EAT-10 has a good reliability and validity in evaluation of the acute stroke patients with dysphagia. The sensitivity and negative value are the best with the cut-off value of 1 (EAT-10 score ≥ 1). It offers a good way to discriminate dysphagia, impaired efficacy, penetrations, and aspirations in acute stroke patients.