OBJECTIVE:
Analyze the process of feeding institutionalized elderly, and, more specifically, to describe the socio-demographic profile of the elderly, to check for possible structural alterations of the stomatognathic system, the functions of chewing and swallowing and to verify self-reported feeding difficulties.
METHODS:
Study of quantitative, descriptive, observational, transversal and prospective type. The sample consisted of 27 female and 3 male subjects, aged between 65 and 93 years, residents of a long-stay institution in Canoas-RS in the period between July and August in 2012. Using two protocols, we conducted an interview, an assessment of the stomatognathic system and, finally, the observation of an elderly's meal in his habitual feeding environment.
RESULTS:
About the feeding difficulties, the subjects cited their difficulty in chewing any food and their preference for soft foods. The main changes in the stomatognathic structures and their functions have been changes in tone and mobility and adaptation of chewing and swallowing, through the exaggerated participation of the perioral muscles and the slowed masticatory rhythm.
CONCLUSION:
The process of feeding the institutionalized elderly undergoes changes over the years, and habituation of the difficulties encountered by performing compensation is common among them. The results highlight the need for interdisciplinary speech therapy in long-stay institutions in order to minimize the impact of the effects of aging on stomatognathic functions, providing a better quality of life to the institutionalized elderly.
Elderly; Feeding; Phonoaudiology