Summary: | 碩士 === 高雄醫學大學 === 口腔衛生科學研究所 === 98 === Background: Throughout the world, the proportion of older people in the general population has increased in recent years. In addition to other general health issues there are tremendous implications for oral health. Previous studies have shown widespread oral health problems among nursing home residents, including poor oral hygiene, high levels of dental needs and low rates of dental care utilization.
Purpose: The purpose was to report the oral health among residents in Kaohsiung City and County, and to evaluate the correlation between oral conditions and socio-demographic variables, as well as between oral conditions and daily activities variables. This research was to improve the oral health status, general health, enhance the daily oral function activity quality and general daily activities through this project including oral health survey for long-term care institutionalized residents.
Methods: The 16 registered long-term care institutions of Kaohsiung City and County were selected at stratified random sampling, and 747 persons of their residents registered as people with disabilities and over 45 years old, showed willingness to cooperate to this program were used in this research. This program was conducted under complete explanation to the institutes, and the residents only conducted to those people who have signed the agreement and consent to this program. The materials used in this research included structural sampling questionnaires, oral health status examinations. Statistical methodology included descriptive statistics, t-Test, Chi-square test, ANOVA and linear/logistic regression analyze.
Results: There were 747 institutionalized residents who more than 45 years old enrolled in this study. The number of males was 333 and the number of females was 414, and the average of age was 77.68±11.09 years old. For the dentition status, the average number of missing teeth was 20.58±10.43 teeth per person, decay teeth was 1.17±3.12 teeth, filled teeth was 0.16±0.89 teeth, root caries was 0.39±1.62 teeth, residual root was 2.21±3.81 teeth, and the average number of fixed prosthesis was 3.06±5.25 teeth. For the edentulous status, the rate of edentulous was 28.25%. For the missing teeth and edentulism, gender, age groups and education level showed statistically significant differences. The rate of residents who achieve 8020 was 3.08%. Plaque index was 1.86±0.88, gingival status was 2.13±0.92, calculus index was 1.14±1.01, attrition was 1.16±1.15, mobility was 0.23±0.51, and tongue coating score was 0.66±0.89.
Conclusion: This study has shown a lot of oral health problems among institutionalized residents, including poor oral hygiene, plaque, calculus, missing teeth and edentulism. Therefore, the results suggest the necessity of improving and implementing the dental health services programs. In order to promote oral health for the institutionalized residents, the care givers and dental professionals’ cooperation are necessary to help the residents to maintain good oral hygiene and raise the quality of life of the residents.
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