Abstract: Objective To analyze the correlation between sarcopenia and post-stroke swallowing dysfunction in the elderly patients with stroke. Methods A total of 119 elderly patients with stroke admitted to our hospital from November 2019 to April 2021 were enrolled in this study, and the sarcopenia and post-stroke swallowing dysfunction of the patients was assessed within 24 h after admission using the myalgia simple five-item score questionnaire(SARC-F) and the Standardized Swallowing Assessment scale (SSA) respectively. The patients were divided into swallowing dysfunction group and non-swallowing dysfunction group, and the correlation between sarcopenia and post-stroke swallowing dysfunction was analyzed. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors of post-stroke swallowing dysfunction. Results The incidence rate of sarcopenia in 119 elderly stroke patients was 21.01%, and the incidence rate of post-stroke swallowing dysfunction was 35.29%. There were significant differences in age, and the proportion of diabetes mellitus, chronic heart failure, malnutrition, activity time ＞30 min and sarcopenia between swallowing dysfunction group and non-swallowing dysfunction group(P<0.05). The score of SARC-F was significantly associated with SSA score in the elderly patients with stroke (r=0.624, P<0.01); Logistic regression analysis showed that age > 70 years, diabetes mellitus, chronic heart failure, malnutrition and sarcopenia were the risk factors for the development of swallowing dysfunction after stroke in the elderly (P<0.05). Conclusions Sarcopenia is a high-risk factor for the development of post-stroke swallowing dysfunction. Assessing the occurrence of sarcopenia can be helpful for clinical judgment of the risk of swallowing dysfunction after stroke in elderly.

Key words: sarcopenia, swallowing dysfunction, aged, stroke, influencing factors