Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40146338›Full record

ArticleDysphagia2025

Assessing Public Awareness and Understanding of Dysphagia: A Representative Survey of US Adults.

Sonja M Molfenter, R Brynn Jones-Rastelli, Arie Barfield, Drew Cooks, Claire Crossman, Kaiyn Jackson, D'manda Price, Journee C Robinson, Aaron M Johnson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Dysphagia, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Sonja M MolfenterDepartment of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, 665 Broadway, New York, NY, USA. smm16@nyu.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1494-661X
R Brynn Jones-RastelliDepartment of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, 665 Broadway, New York, NY, USA.
Arie BarfieldDepartment of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, 665 Broadway, New York, NY, USA.
Drew CooksDepartment of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, 665 Broadway, New York, NY, USA.
Claire CrossmanDepartment of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, 665 Broadway, New York, NY, USA.
Kaiyn JacksonDepartment of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, 665 Broadway, New York, NY, USA.
D'manda PriceDepartment of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, 665 Broadway, New York, NY, USA.
Journee C RobinsonDepartment of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, New York University, 665 Broadway, New York, NY, USA.
Aaron M JohnsonDepartment of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, NYU Langone Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.

Funding

SHARE CSD: An undergraduate summer research experience in CSDR25DC020417 · NIDCD · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY · PI Sudha Arunachalam, Susannah Levi · 2022 to 2026
$1.3M
NIDCD NIH HHS R25 DC020417NIDCD NIH HHS R25DC020417
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeDysphagia is a commonly occurring medical condition estimated to occur in between and 10% adults in the US. Despite this relatively high prevalence, the general population's understanding of this condition is currently unknown. Our aims were to (a) conduct a large-scale survey to determine the public's awareness and understanding of dysphagia in comparison to other three other health conditions and (b) compare this knowledge to relative prevalence rates of the conditions.

methodsThe survey was designed to measure four constructs of interest comparing dysphagia with insomnia, vertigo and ataxia. Constructs included: (1) Knowledge of the Condition, (2) Source of Knowledge, (3) Health Impact, (4) Treating Medical Professionals. The survey was launched via Qualtrics™ software and participants were recruited and paid using Prolific™. Descriptive statistics were used to compare participants knowledge of dysphagia with the other conditions. To obtain relative prevalence rates, Cosmos was used to quantify the number of Epic-based patient encounters with any ICD-10 code for each condition in 2023 and expressed as a percent of all patient encounters in the US in 2023.

results2000 adults (n = 1030 female) aged 18-95 (median 49, IQR = 33-62) completed our survey. When asked, 'Do you know what ____ is'? participants expressed higher familiarity with insomnia (99%) and vertigo (87%) in comparison to dysphagia (25%) and ataxia (18%). From a list of 8 options, 99% and 94% participants selected the correct impairment for insomnia and vertigo respectively, compared with 44% correct for dysphagia and 22% for ataxia. Participants selected an appropriate healthcare provider for dysphagia 47% of the time compared with 74% for insomnia, 56% for vertigo and 36% for ataxia. When asked to identify up to 3 sequelae (from a list of 9), only 4% of participants were able to correctly identify all three for dysphagia, in comparison to 16% for ataxia, 27% for vertigo and 60% for insomnia. The Cosmos analysis revealed that while insomnia had the highest prevalence in 2023 (5.5% of patient encounters), dysphagia occurred much more frequently (2.4%) than vertigo (0.68%) and ataxia (0.24%).

conclusionsThese discrepancies highlight a notable gap in public awareness between dysphagia and more recognized conditions of insomnia and vertigo, even though the prevalence of dysphagia is higher than vertigo. Increasing public awareness of dysphagia is vital for early intervention, increasing quality of life, and advocating for equitable access to healthcare resources.

Indexed as

Deglutition DisordersHealth Knowledge, Attitudes, PracticeAdolescentAdultAgedAged, 80 and overAtaxiaFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedPrevalenceSleep Initiation and Maintenance DisordersSurveys and QuestionnairesUnited StatesVertigoAdvocacyDeglutitionDeglutition disordersDysphagiaPublic awarenessPublic knowledgeSurveySwallowing impairment

Identifiers

PMID40146338
PMCPMC12288755

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.