Uncorrected Proof Middle East J Rehabil Health Stud. In Press(In Press):e130196. Published online 2023 January 14. https://doi.org/10.5812/mejrh-130196. Research Article Effects of Rehabilitative Exercises on Swallowing Function in Elderly People: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial Shiva Ebrahimian Dehaghani 1 , Jalal Bakhtiyari 2 , Masoomeh Salmani 3 , Saba Shahabi 4 , Ali Tahooneh 4 and Hossein Alibakhshi 5, * 1 Speech Therapy Department, Rehabilitation Sciences Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran 2 Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3 Department of Speech Therapy, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran 4 Student Research Committee, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran 5 Neuromuscular Rehabilitation Research Center, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran * Corresponding author: Neuromuscular Rehabilitation Research Center, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran. Email: halibakhshi_m@yahoo.com Received 2022 August 05; Revised 2022 October 02; Accepted 2022 October 19. Abstract Background: Swallowing problems are common in healthy elders. Swallowing difficulties are the cause of medical and psychoso- cial complications in old age. Thus, to prevent and minimize these complications, diagnosis and proper interventions are impor- tant. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of rehabilitative exercises on swallowing function and quality of life in older adults. Methods: A total of forty healthy elders were randomly assigned to the rehabilitative exercises group (n = 20) and the compensatory group (n = 20). Inclusion criteria in this study were as follows: age 60 - 80; the presence of swallowing problems assessed clinically by a speech therapist; no history of swallowing treatment, pneumonia or head and neck surgery, and other neurological or general disorders that can influence swallowing function. Randomization was undertaken using a block randomization technique. Reha- bilitative exercises, including muscle strengthening exercises, were used in 3 sets of 10 per muscle group and three times per week for one month for the rehabilitative exercise group. In order to evaluate the outcomes, the Mann Assessment of Swallowing Ability (MASA) and the P-Dysphagia Handicap Index (P-DHI) were administered. Statistical analysis of data was done by the use of paramet- ric statistical tests such as independent t-test, paired sample t-test, and nonparametric tests such as Mann-Whitney test, and P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding demographic and clinical swallowing function before intervention (P ≤ 0.05). There was a significant improvement in the clinical function of swallowing and swallow-related quality of life in the group which received the rehabilitative exercises compared to the group that received only the compensatory methods (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Our research has indicated that swallowing rehabilitative exercises are more effective in improving clinical swallow- ing function in elderly persons than compensatory exercises. Keywords: Dysphagia, Elderly, Speech Therapy 1. Background Adequate nutrition is an essential determinant of health in the elderly. Normal deglutition, as the first phase of digestion, is one of the most complicated neuromus- cular processes of the central nervous system that allows the easy and safe transfer of foods and liquids from the mouth to the stomach. This process occurs in four stages: preparatory, transport, pharyngeal, and esophageal stages (1). Swallowing disorder or dysphagia occurs when this normal process is disrupted, and the person cannot move food from the mouth to the stomach. Swallowing disor- ders can occur throughout a person’s life, but they’re more common in old age (2). The true prevalence of dysphagia in the elderly is very different and is often underestimated because of the aging associated with various neurological and metabolic diseases. But the prevalence of dysphagia in the elderly with no specific disease and as a natural result of aging is 37.6% among the elderly population (3-5). Age-related changes in the swallowing mechanism, along with age-related diseases, put older individuals at a higher risk of developing dysphagia (6). Copyright © 2023, Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.