Current evidence supports moving beyond aspiration as a binary outcome toward individualized, person-centred risk-benefit assessment. Good oral health care is a significant and underused approach to reducing respiratory complications. Expiratory muscle strength training and motor imagery show promise in supporting impaired swallow and respiratory function. Frameworks integrating host factors, respiratory status, and lived experience better support ethical, informed clinical decision making, particularly in chronic respiratory disease and palliative care.
Palmer et al. (Thu,) studied this question.