Reverberi, Cristina; Beschin, Nicoletta; Barbieri, Martina and Cocchini, Gianna. 2025. The Visual Analogue Test for Anosognosia for Dysphagia: VATA-Dysphagia. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, ISSN 1368-2822 [Article] (In Press)

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Abstract or Description

Background: Swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) can be associated with a plethora of neurological diseases representing a life changing condition and, in severe cases, a life-threatening situation. It is, therefore, crucial that patients and caregivers are aware of its implications to implement the best strategies for safety and functional rehabilitation. Current scales present some limitations in assessing patients’ and their caregivers’ awareness, making difficult to evaluate more ecological aspects of dysphagia and hampering the assessment of patients with aphasia, attentional disorders, or showing poor compliance.

Aim: We endeavoured to develop a novel tool for assessing potential distortions of awareness for dysphagia while mitigating the effect of the aforementioned constraints.

Methods and procedures: Capitalising on current methods to assess lack of awareness (anosognosia), we devised and validated a new scale, the VATA-dysphagia, with healthy volunteers, clinicians and adult neurological patients. A sample of 70 neurological patients presenting with dysphagia and different food intake limitations were asked to rate, on a visual-analogue scale, their difficulties in performing specific tasks.

Results: Up to 42% of patients were deemed as anosognosics and 10% fell in the borderline range. Interestingly, in a few cases, the caregivers also showed lack of awareness for the patient’s dysphagia. A rapid identification of similar situations may help to promptly intervene and avoid highly risky situations for the patient.

Conclusions and implications: Anosognosia for dysphagia can be more frequent than expected and the VATA-dysphagia, which does not intent to replace dysphagia assessment scales, offers a reliable and rapid method to assess awareness for different types of swallowing disorders in adult neurological patients. It can also be used to evaluate caregiver’s awareness of the patient’s circumstances to help anticipate possible risks and minimise incidents.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70057
Additional Information:	The Italian version of the test is freely available for download from https://giannacocchini.wixsite.com/gcpage.
Data Access Statement:	Anonymized data are publicly available at https://osf.io/j6m2r/
Keywords:	Anosognosia, Dysphagia, Awareness, Brain damage, Assessment, Swallowing, Adult
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Psychology > Cognitive Neuroscience Unit Psychology
Dates:	Date Event 7 May 2025 Accepted
Item ID:	38772
Date Deposited:	08 May 2025 16:03
Last Modified:	08 May 2025 16:09
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/38772

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