Swallowing tablets can be challenging for many people, but particularly so for those with a diagnosis of dysphagia. As a result, many medications are prepared in alternate formats including liquid, dissolvable or orally disintegrating tablets that dissolve on contact with saliva without the need for water. This study investigates whether orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs) improve medication adherence and clinical outcomes in patients with post-stroke dysphagia. Using a large Japanese medical and dental claims database, researchers identified patients aged 65 and older with post-stroke dysphagia from April 2014 to March 2021. They compared one-year outcomes of medication adherence, cardiovascular events and aspiration pneumonia between patients taking ODTs and non-ODTs using high-dimensional propensity score (hd-PS) matching. The researchers found no significant difference in medication adherence between ODT and non-ODT groups before (0.887 vs. 0.900, P = 0.999) and after hd-PS matching (0.889 vs. 0.902, P = 0.977). No significant difference in the proportion of cardiovascular events (0.898 vs. 0.893, P = 0.591) and aspiration pneumonia (0.380 vs. 0.372, P = 0.558) between the groups were noted. The study concludes that ODTs do not significantly improve medication adherence or clinical outcomes compared to non-ODTs in patients with post-stroke dysphagia. Clinicians may prescribe ODTs or non-ODTs based on patient preferences rather than solely on post-stroke conditions.
Do easier-to-swallow tablets improve medication adherence in people with dysphagia?
Reviewed by Roganie Govender
Do Orally Disintegrating Tablets Facilitate Medical Adherence and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Post‑stroke Dysphagia?
CONTRIBUTOR
Roganie Govender
University College London, Head & Neck Academic Centre, UK.
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