Objective: Pediatric dysphagia (PD) is a significant health issue commonly seen in both typically and atypically developing children and may cause serious complications. Early diagnosis and intervention are important, and pediatricians play a key role in this process. This study aimed to evaluate pediatricians' knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding PD. Material and Methods: A structured questionnaire was used to evaluate pediatricians' KAP regarding PD. Results: Ninety pediatricians with a mean professional experience of 13.54±10.16 years participated in the study. The accuracy rates of the questions in the knowledge section ranged between 83.3% and 97.8%. A percentage of 65.6 of the participants reported insufficient multidisciplinary collaboration in their clinics. The most commonly reported problems were food aspiration (72.2%), drooling (68.9%), food refusal (64.4%), picky eating (62.2%), and chewing disorder (58.9%). Only 41.1% reported using at least one method for PD assessment, while 20% reported directly intervening in management. The most commonly used assessment method was medical history taking (16.7%), while the most frequent intervention was modification of feeding type (7.7%). Visual analog scale scores were for assessment 5.70±2.14 and 4.41±2.33 for treatment. The main barriers to routine PD screening were reported to be the lack of standardized protocols (68.9%) and insufficient specialized personnel (62.2%). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that pediatricians have sufficient basic knowledge about PD, but multidisciplinary teamwork in PD management and pediatricians' clinical practice are inadequate in both PD assessment and treatment. The necessity of developing standard clinical protocols for the management of PD in our country and supporting relevant healthcare professionals with comprehensive training programs is highlighted.
SÖYLER et al. (Thu,) studied this question.