Study: Most seniors with hoarseness, trouble swallowing don’t seek treatment

For older people, problems with hoarseness and swallowing can cause serious harm to overall health and quality of life.

And new research from Duke University shows that about three-quarters of seniors with these conditions tend not to get medical treatment, even though the problems can increase frailty by making it harder to talk, eat and drink.

Related health articles:

• Emotion, few details, in Obama's health care pitch 
• CDC: Private health care coverage at 50-year-low 
• Few survive cardiac arrest, even with hospital CPR 
• Fawcett's death spotlights a rare cancer 
• Gene variants linked to higher schizophrenia risk 

• Topics: Atlanta hospitals | Weight loss | CDC | Cancer | Swine Flu
• Back to Health news

DOCTOR IS IN

Why worry?

THINNER YOU

Lose weight. Together.

Half of 248 people studied, all over 80, did not know that help is available for the conditions.

“There is a lack of awareness and understanding of what these voice problems really mean,” said Dr. Seth Cohen, a Duke ear, nose and throat specialist.

Cohen is scheduled to present the research Tuesday in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery.

“The bottom line is that anyone who has voice problems for more than two weeks — and it’s more than just a cold — it needs to be evaluated,” Cohen said.

Nearly one of out five people in the study had hoarseness, weakness or loss of voice. About one of seven had dysphagia, which is painful swallowing, researchers said.

Marion Westbrook, 68, of Goldsboro, recently had a painful lesson about the severity of problems with speaking and swallowing.

“On several occasions I was choking and couldn’t breathe,” said Westbrook, a retired state employee who experienced a paralyzed vocal cord after surgery. “I had no idea how much a vocal cord controls the parts of your body, your swallowing and breathing.”

Westbrook said she’s had to undergo three additional operations to correct the paralysis in her vocal cord. She’s still not back to normal, unable to walk the two miles she and husband Sammy used to cover every day.

Many older people view hoarseness and difficulty swallowing as normal parts of aging, the researchers said, perhaps leading to reluctance to ask for help even in more serious cases.

Caroline Banka, a speech-language pathologist at the Duke Voice Care Center, said some change in vocal ability does occur with aging.

“But if you are an older person and your voice is hoarse, your voice is tired, if you are not talking as much as you used to, you should have an evaluation” that could indicate a need for voice therapy, Banka said.

Cohen said family practitioners who are pressed for time when dealing with older patients may not always ask about hoarseness and swallowing and may need more education on the topics.

Dr. Conrad L. Flick, a family physician in Raleigh, said problems with swallowing, with many potential diagnoses, typically get more attention than hoarseness. But both could be under-recognized, he said.

“It’s not because we are not looking for them,” said Flick, a past president of the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians. “But when you are dealing with someone who has multiple medical problems, you tend to deal with the thing that is of most concern at the time.”

How can people protect their voices and throats

—Drink plenty of fluids.

—Don’t smoke.

—Seek treatment for allergies.

—Make sure that heartburn is well-managed to avoid reflux.

—Get checked by medical professionals if problems persist.

Source: Duke Voice Care Center