ORIGINAL ARTICLE Validation of the Spanish Version of the Eating Assessment Tool- 10 (EAT-10 spa ) in Colombia. A Blinded Prospective Cohort Study Luis Fernando Giraldo-Cadavid 1,2 • Alejandra Marı ´a Gutie ´rrez-Achury 3 • Karem Ruales-Sua ´rez 3 • Maria Leonor Rengifo-Varona 3 • Camilo Barros 4 • Andre ´s Posada 4 • Carlos Romero 4 • Ana Marı ´a Galvis 3 Received: 12 October 2015 / Accepted: 2 January 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract Dysphagia might affect 12 % of the general population, and its complications include pneumonia, malnutrition, social isolation, and death. No validated Spanish symptom survey exists to quantify dysphagia symptoms among Latin Americans. Therefore, we per- formed a prospective cohort study in a tertiary care uni- versity hospital to validate the Spanish version of the 10-Item Eating-Assessment-Tool (EAT-10 spa ) for use in Colombia. After an interdisciplinary committee of five bilingual specialists evaluated the EAT-10 spa (translated and validated in Spain) and deemed it appropriate for the Colombian culture, its feasibility, reliability, validity, sensitivity to change, and diagnostic capacity were evalu- ated. As a reference standard, we used the flexible endo- scopic evaluation of swallowing with sensory testing and a standardized clinical evaluation. All assessments were blinded. In total, 133 subjects were included (52 % women, mean age 55 years) and completed the EAT-10 spa (median completion time: 2 min [IQR 1–3 min]), 39 % of whom had an elementary-level education. Cronbach’s a coeffi- cient: 0.91; test–retest intra-class correlation coefficient: 0.94. The Spearman’s correlation coefficient of the EAT- 10 spa with the 8-point penetration-aspiration scale was 0.54 (P \ 0.001). The area under the receiver-operating-char- acteristic-curve (AUC-ROC) for dysphagia and aspiration were 0.79 (P \ 0.001) and 0.81 (P \ 0.001), respectively. The best cut-off points for dysphagia and aspiration were EAT-10 spa C2 (sensitivity 93.6 %, specificity 36.4 %) and EAT-10 spa C4 (sensitivity 94.3 %, specificity 49.5 %), respectively. A reduction in the EAT-10 C3 was the best cut-off point for a clinically significant improvement (AUC-ROC 0.83; P \ 0.0001). The EAT-10 spa showed excellent psychometric properties and discriminatory capacity for use in Colombia. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00455-016-9690-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Luis Fernando Giraldo-Cadavid lgiraldo@alumni.unav.es; luisgc@unisabana.edu.co Alejandra Marı ´a Gutie ´rrez-Achury alejaguti53@gmail.com Karem Ruales-Sua ´rez rualeskarem@gmail.com Maria Leonor Rengifo-Varona maria.rengifo@clinicaunisabana.edu.co Camilo Barros camilo_barros@hotmail.com Andre ´s Posada andrespolo2@hotmail.com Carlos Romero carlosaugusto_romero@hotmail.com Ana Marı ´a Galvis anamaria.galvis@clinicaunisabana.edu.co 1 DIMA, School of Medicine, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea 1, 31080 Pamplona, Navarra, Spain 2 Pulmonary Medicine Service, Research Department, University of La Sabana, Chia, Cundinamarca, Colombia 3 Rehabilitation Department, Clinica University of La Sabana, Chia, Cundinamarca, Colombia 4 Department of Internal Medicine, University of La Sabana, Chia, Cundinamarca, Colombia 123 Dysphagia DOI 10.1007/s00455-016-9690-1