Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Assessment of the Concerns of Caregivers of Children with Repaired Esophageal Atresia–Tracheoesophageal Fistula Related to Feeding–Swallowing Difficulties

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Dysphagia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The study aimed to assess concerns of caregivers of children with EA-TEF related to feeding–swallowing difficulties, compare the concerns according to type of atresia and repair time, and investigate its relationship with time to start oral feeding. Caregivers accompanying 64 children with EA-TEF were included. Age, sex, type of atresia, repair time, and time to start oral feeding were noted. Parents completed the Turkish version of the Feeding/Swallowing Impact Survey (T-FS-IS) to assess the concerns of caregivers related to feeding–swallowing difficulties. The T-FS-IS has three subscales including daily activities, worry, and feeding difficulties. The median age of patients was 3 (min = 1, max = 12) years, of which 57.8% were male. 43.8% of cases were isolated-EA, and 56.3% were EA-distal TEF. 57.8% of cases received early repair, and 42.2% had delayed repair. The median time to start oral feeding was 4 weeks (min = 1, max = 128). The mean scores of daily activities, worry, feeding difficulties, and total score from the T-FS-IS were 2.43 ± 1.18, 2.73 ± 1.28, 2.10 ± 0.97, and 2.44 ± 1.09, respectively. Caregivers of children with isolated-EA reported more problems in total score and all subscales of the T-FS-IS than EA-distal TEF (p < 0.01). Caregivers of children who received delayed repair reported more problems in total score and all subscales of the T-FS-IS than children with early repair (p < 0.05). Moderate to strong correlations were found between the T-FS-IS and time to start oral feeding (p < 0.01, r = 0.55–0.65). This study suggests that caregivers of children with isolated-EA and/or delayed repair and/or delay in oral intake may have higher concerns related to feeding–swallowing difficulties.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Spitz L. Oesophageal atresia. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2007;2:24–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Sistonen SJ, Pakarinen MP, Rintala RJ. Long-term results of esophageal atresia: Helsinki experience and review of literature. Pediatr Surg Int. 2011;27:1141–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Koivusalo A, Pakarinen MP, Turunen P, Saarikoski H, Lindahl H, Rintala RJ. Health-related quality of life in adult patients with esophageal atresia-a questionnaire study. J Pediatr Surg. 2005;40:307–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Yalcin S, Demir N, Serel S, Soyer T, Tanyel FC. The evaluation of deglutition with videofluoroscopy after repair of esophageal atresia and/or tracheoesophageal fistula. J Pediatr Surg. 2015;50:1823–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Serel Arslan S, Demir N, Karaduman AA, Tanyel FC, Soyer T. Chewing function in children with repaired esophageal etresia-tracheoesophageal fistula. Eur J Pediatr Surg. 2018;28:534–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Faugli A, Emblem R, Veenstra M, Bhornland K, Diseth TH. Does esophageal atresia influence the mother-infant interaction? J Pediatr Surg. 2008;43:1796–801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kovesi T, Rubin S. Long-term complications of congenital esophageal atresia and/or tracheoesophageal fistula. Chest. 2004;126:915–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Mahoney L, Rosen R. Feeding difficulties in children with esophageal atresia. Paediatr Respir Rev. 2016;19:21–7.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Abidin RR. The determinants of parenting behavior. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 1992;21:407–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hewetson R, Singh S. The lived experience of mothers of children with chronic feeding and/or swallowing difficulties. Dysphagia. 2009;24:322–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Tawfik R, Dickson A, Clarke M, Thomas AG. Caregivers’ perceptions following gastrostomy in severely disabled children with feeding problems. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1997;39:746–51.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Heckathorn DE, Speyer R, Taylor J, Cordier R. Systematic review: non-instrumental swallowing and feeding assessments in pediatrics. Dysphagia. 2016;31:1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Lefton-Greif MA, Okelo SO, Wright JM, Collaco JM, McGrath-Morrow SA, Eakin MN. Impact of children’s feeding/swallowing problems: validation of a new caregiver instrument. Dysphagia. 2014;29:671–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Serel Arslan S, Kılınç HE, Yaşaroğlu ÖF, İnal Ö, Demir N, Karaduman AA. Reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the feeding/swallowing impact survey. J Dev Phys Disabil. 2018;30:723–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, Buchner A. G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods. 2007;39:175–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Mukaka MM. Statistics corner: a guide to appropriate use of correlation coefficient in medical research. Malawi Med J. 2012;24:69–71.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Goday PS, Huh SY, Silverman A, Lukens CT, Dodrill P, Cohen SS, et al. Pediatric feeding disorder: consensus definition and conceptual framework. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2018;68:124–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Kovar KJ. Nutrition assessment and management in pediatric dysphagia. Semin Speech Lang. 1997;18:39–50.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Nund RL, Scarinci NA, Cartmill B, Ward EC (2015) Dysphagia and the family, seminars in dysphagia. In: Renee Speyer (ed.), InTech.

  20. Fracchia MS, Diercks G, Yamasaki A, Hersh C, Hardy S, Hartnick M, Hartnick C. Assessment of the feeding Swallowing Impact Survey as a quality of life measure in children with laryngeal cleft before and after repair. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2017;99:73–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Hiremath G, Rogers E, Kennedy E, Hemler J, Acra S. A comparative analysis of eating behavior of school-aged children with eosinophilic esophagitis and their caregivers’ quality of life: perspectives of caregivers. Dysphagia. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-019-09984-x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Kumari V, Joshi P, Dhua AK, Sapra S, Srinivas M, Agarwala S, et al. Developmental status of children operated for esophageal atresia with or without tracheoesophageal fistula along with maternal stress, their quality of life, and coping abilities at AIIMS, New Delhi. Eur J Pediatr Surg. 2019;29:125–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Witt S, Dellenmark-Blom M, Dingemann J, Dingemann C, Ure BM, Gomez B. Quality of life in parents of children born with esophageal atresia. Eur J Pediatr Surg. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0038-1660867.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Tröbs RB, Finke W, Bahr M, Roll C, Nissen M, Vahdad MR, Cernaianu G. Isolated tracheoesophageal fistula versus esophageal atresia—early morbidity and short-term outcome. A single institution series. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2017;94:104–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Healey PJ, Sawin RS, Hall DG, Schaller RT, Tapper D. Delayed primary repair of esophageal atresia with tracheoesophageal fistula: is ıt worth the wait? Arch Surg. 1998;133:552–6.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Hunter CJ, Petrosyan M, Connelly ME, Ford HR, Nguyen NX. Repair of long-gap esophageal atresia: gastric conduits may improve outcome-a 20-year single center experience. Pediatr Surg Int. 2009;25:1087–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Cavallaro S, Pineschi A, Freni G, Cortese MG, Bardini T. Feeding troubles following delayed primary repair of esophageal atresia. Eur J Pediatr Surg. 1992;2:73–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Conforti A, Valfre L, Falbo M, Bagolan P, Cerchiari A. Feeding and swallowing disorders in esophageal atresia patients: a review of a critical issue. Eur J Pediatr Surg. 2015;25:318–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Golonka NR, Hayashi AH. Early “sham” feeding of neonates promotes oral feeding after delayed primary repair of major congenital esophageal anomalies. Am J Surg. 2008;195:659–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the children and parents who consented and participated in this study.

Funding

No funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Hacettepe University, Altındağ, 06100, Ankara, Turkey

    Selen Serel Arslan, Numan Demir & Aynur Ayşe Karaduman

  2. Department of Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Feridun Cahit Tanyel & Tutku Soyer

Authors
  1. Selen Serel Arslan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Numan Demir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Aynur Ayşe Karaduman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Feridun Cahit Tanyel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Tutku Soyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Selen Serel Arslan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

All participants signed an informed consent form.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Serel Arslan, S., Demir, N., Karaduman, A.A. et al. Assessment of the Concerns of Caregivers of Children with Repaired Esophageal Atresia–Tracheoesophageal Fistula Related to Feeding–Swallowing Difficulties. Dysphagia 35, 438–442 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-019-10046-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-019-10046-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation