Activities of daily living and oral hygiene status of older Korean patients in a long‐term care facility

• Published in: International journal of dental hygiene Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 154 - 160
• Main Authors: Seo, H‐Y, Jeon, J‐E, Chung, W‐G, Kim, N‐H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2017
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Activities of Daily Living - classification; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; dental hygiene profession; dental hygienists; Dentistry; Disability Evaluation; Female; Homes for the Aged; Humans; Hygiene; Long term health care; long‐term care; Male; Nursing Homes; older persons; oral hygiene; Oral Hygiene Index; Republic of Korea; Statistics as Topic; oral hygiene; activities of daily living; long-term care; dental hygienists; older persons; dental hygiene profession; oral hygiene index
• ISSN: 1601-5029; 1601-5037
• DOI: 10.1111/idh.12194

Objectives This study investigated the relationship between oral hygiene conditions, activities of daily living (ADL) and cognitive ability in older Korean patients in long‐term care facilities. Methods Ninety older persons (65+) were randomly sampled from a possible 112 residents in a single facility. They participated in a 2‐month‐long survey. The Korean Modified Barthel Index was used to measure the ADL, and cognitive ability was measured using the Mini‐Mental State Examination, Korean version. Oral hygiene status was measured using the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index and the Tongue Coating Index (TCI). Results Older participants with complete dependence manifested significantly poorer oral hygiene (P < 0.05). Scores on the TCI were significantly higher in participants who were dentulous with partial dependence (P < 0.05). A multiple regression analysis showed that dependence and being dentulous significantly predicted poorer oral hygiene (P < 0.05). Conclusions This study suggests that older participants with complete dependence had poor oral hygiene on tooth surfaces, while participants with partial dependence had poor tongue hygiene. In addition, dentulous older participants had poorer tongue hygiene than edentulous ones. This indicates the need to assess tooth status and provide oral care services via ADL in long‐term care facilities.