Association between swallowing disorders and cognitive disorders in adults: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

There is no consensus regarding the association between dysphagia and cognition. The aim of this study was to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the available evidence on the direction and strength of the association between dysphagia and cognition. PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science were searched for studies about the association between dysphagia and cognition. A random effects model was used to determine weighted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the impact of each individual study on the pooled results. A total of 1427 participants showed that some cognitive disorders were significantly associated with dysphagia (odds ratio = 3.23, 95% confidence interval: 2.33-4.48). The association between cognition and swallowing disorders suggests that multiple neuroanatomical systems are involved in these two functions.