Article Sidebar
Published:
Nov 7, 2019DOI:
10.4314/ahs.v19i3.47Keywords:
Article Details
While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:
- 1. Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)
- 2. The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:
- No substantive errors are introduced in the process
- Attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given
- The referencing details are not changed.
Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.
- 3. The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.
B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences
I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:
1.0 I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:
- That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights
- That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation
- That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published
- That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.
3.0 I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)
Main Article Content
Reliability and validity of the neonatal feeding assessment scale (NFAS) for the early identification of dysphagia in moderate to late preterm neonates
Abstract
Background: A clinical feeding assessment instrument to assist with early identification of oropharyngeal dysphagia (OPD) in neonates was developed.
Objective: To investigate the validity and reliability of the Neonatal Feeding Assessment Scale (NFAS) in comparison to the modified barium swallow study (MBSS) as gold standard.
Method: A within-subject design was implemented. A group of 48 late premature neonates (mean gestational age 35.5 weeks) were sampled in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Results: The NFAS consists of six subsections, including physiological stability, infant state, stress cues, screening of muscle tone and control, oral peripheral examination and feeding/swallowing assessment. 93% of participants (14/15) received confirmatory diagnosis of OPD on MBSS. The NFAS presented with high sensitivity (78.6%) and specificity (88.2%) scores. The positive predictive value was 78.6%. Subsequently the accuracy of the NFAS to identify the presence of OPD accurately was 85.4% when compared to MBSS. Inter-rater reliability was determined on 35% of the sample. The inter-rater agreement on overall instrument outcome was substantial beyond chance.
Conclusion: The NFAS may be of use to clinicians to support the early identification of OPD in this population, especially in resource constrained settings working without access to MBSS and to reach under served neonates.
Keywords: Inter-rater reliability, modified barium swallow study, Neonatal Feeding Assessment Scale (NFAS), oropharyngeal dysphagia diagnosis, validity.
