Introduction:
EAT-10 (Eating Assessment Tool) is a symptom-based questionnaire for the systematic assessment of dysphagia. EAT-10 has been validated for a number of languages, however not for German. The current study aimed at the translation of EAT-10 into German and examination of its reliability for head-and-neck cancer patients.
Methods:
The translation of EAT-10 was carried out according to the Guidelines for the translation of foreign assessment tools. EAT-10 was filled out by 81 head-and-neck cancer patients (76% male, age range 28 – 85, median 64; UICC tumor stage I-IV). The reliability, namely internal consistency, was determined by means of Cronbach's Alpha. The association between EAT-10 and tumor stage and site were analyzed by a Spearman correlation and Kruskal-Wallis H test.
Results:
Cronbach's Alpha amounted to 0.937. Tumor stage correlated significantly with the EAT-10 total score (ρ= 0.403, p < 0.001). Differences in the EAT-10 values depending on the tumor site were highly significant: χ2(2)= 11.78, p = 0.003.
Conclusions:
The German version of EAT-10 demonstrated a very good reliability. The tumor stage correlated significantly, although moderately, with the EAT-10 total score. Higher tumor stages were associated with higher EAT-10 values, that is, with a higher severity of dysphagia. Patients with oropharynx tumors were most concerned about their swallowing problems, patients with tumors in the oral cavity, on the contrary, were least concerned. The German version of EAT-10 was shown to be a reliable instrument for the assessment of swallowing disorders in head-and-neck cancer patients.
