Evaluation of food texture by a questionnaire utilizing oropharyngeal sensation

Yamada K, Kondo I, Ozaki K, Sumi Y, Tanaka Y. Evaluation of food texture by a questionnaire utilizing oropharyngeal sensation. Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 2013; 4: 1－6. Purpose: With the objective to develop a standardized sensory test for food texture, which allows simple diet evaluation using oropharyngeal sensation in clinical and domiciliary settings, we added items to an existing questionnaire and evaluated the reliability and criterion-related validity of the new instrument. Methods: Twenty healthy adult volunteers were instructed to chew and swallow test foods adjusted to three grades of food property using the enzyme homogeneous permeation or freeze-dry method, and then respond to a questionnaire containing nine items. Results: The highest κ, which is the statistic value for reliability, was 0.523 for question 1 and the lowest κ was 0.281 for question 2. For criterion-related validity, a significant relationship was observed between multiple questionnaire items and “hardness stress” (p < 0.05), whereas almost no significant correlation was observed between the questionnaire items and “adhesiveness” or “cohesiveness” (p ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: Criterion-related validity was confirmed for several questionnaire items in relation to “hardness stress”. Future studies are required to explore questionnaire items related to “adhesiveness” and “cohesiveness” and to improve the reliability of the