Abstract
We aimed to explore the specific challenges encountered by individuals with dysphagia when taking oral medications, focusing on the types of dysphagia that impede pill swallowing and the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and pill residue. We retrospectively reviewed 70 patients who underwent videofluoroscopic swallowing studies at the Department of Dysphagia Rehabilitation, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Dental Hospital between May 2013 and March 2020. Patients were assessed for pill residue in various anatomical locations, including the mouth, epiglottic vallecula, and piriform sinus. Patient demographics, BMI, functional oral intake scale scores, and clinical histories were collected. Pill residue was most commonly observed in the epiglottic vallecula (17% of patients), followed by the piriform sinus (10%) and mouth (9%). Males were more likely to have tablet residue in the epiglottic vallecula (p = 0.047), and a lower BMI was associated with increased pill residue in the piriform sinus (p = 0.025). Multivariate analysis identified sex as a significant predictor of epiglottic pill residue (p = 0.031), whereas a lower BMI was associated with pill residue in the piriform sinus (p = 0.016). Sex and BMI significantly influenced pill residue in patients with dysphagia; males and individuals with a lower BMI (< 18.5 kg/m2) were at higher risk.
Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are not openly available due to ethical restrictions. The data are, however, available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
Editorial support, including medical writing, table assembly, creation of high-resolution images as per authors’ instructions, collation of author comments, copyediting, fact-checking, and referencing, was provided by Editage and Cactus Communications.
Funding
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP21K17488 and The Yuumi Memorial Foundation for Home Health Care. Dr. Yu Yoshizumi received the JSPS KAKENHI, and Dr. Ayako Nakane received funding from The Yuumi Memorial Foundation for Home Health Care. The funding sources were not involved in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit this article for publication.
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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analyses were performed by MA, SM, KM, and HT. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MA, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. YY contributed to the review, editing, and funding acquisition. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This retrospective study was conducted in compliance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Review Committee of the Faculty of Dentistry at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Approval Number: D2021-013).
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Informed consent was obtained through an opt-out process. Participants were informed about the research purpose, the use of their data, and the potential for publication of the findings. They were given the opportunity to decline participation.
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Nakane, A., Ando, M., Yoshizumi, Y. et al. Sex and BMI as predictors of pill residue in dysphagia: a multivariate analysis. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-43307-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-43307-z
