Jiayi Liang, Rujun Li, Yufei Yang, Xiaodong Li
Dysphagia and malnutrition form a self-sustaining cycle, which significantly deteriorates the clinical prognosis. This review aims to synthesize the high prevalence of malnutrition in patients with dysphagia and multifactor etiological evidence, critically evaluate diversified management strategies, and focus on the analysis of liquid food thickeners. Existing evidence shows that thickeners improve swallowing safety through rheological modification, but there are controversies in drug interactions, gastrointestinal sequelae, and patient compliance. In the future, the nursing model needs to go beyond the general thickening program and turn to precision nutrition, relying on material science, digital monitoring and etiology-specific intervention to break the dysphagia-malnutrition association, improve patient-centered outcomes, and reduce medical burden.