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dysphagia
(the medical term for any difficulty or discomfort when swallowing)

  • Dysphagia affects as many as 15,000,000 Americans (approx 5% of the population).1
  • The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have estimated that 1,000,000
    new patients are diagnosed with Dysphagia in the United States annually.1
  • One in 17 people will develop some form of Dysphagia in their lifetime, including 50 to 75 percent of stroke patients and 60 to 75 percent of patients who undergo radiation therapy for head and neck cancer.3
  • The prevalence of dysphasia may be as high as 22% in those over 50 years.2
  • As many as half of all Americans over 60 will experience Dysphagia at some point.4
  • As many as 33% of patients in acute care, 66% of patients in long term care and 30% of stroke patients may be dysphagic.3
  • 50 to 75 percent of stroke patients and 60 to 70 percent of patients who undergo radiation therapy for head and neck cancer have dysphagia.5
  • Dysphagia can arise from a wide variety of causes, including:
    - Stroke, traumatic head injuries, spinal cord injury, meningitis, brain tumors, Parkinson's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsey, respiratory conditions and many more.6
  1. ASHA 1994 ASHA. Prevalence of speech, voice and language disorders in the United States. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 1994.
  2. ASHA 2008 ASHA Communication Facts: Special Populations: Dysphagia- 2008 Edition.
    American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2008
  3. National statistics cited by Congress 2008 / www.dysphagiamobileimaging.com
  4. Shanley and O'Loughlin 2000
  5. Mann et al. 2000; Nguyen et al. 2006; Nguyen et al. 2008
  6. www.vitalstimtherapy.com