The Effect of Oral Health Care Interventions on Oral Self Care Practices of the Institutionalized Older Adults

One of the major criteria of successful aging is maintaining a natural, healthy,functional dentition throughout life. However, the oral health of older adults is far from theoptimal. Treatment needs are high due to edentulism, caries and periodontal diseasesresulting in impaired oral functions. The etiology of many dental diseases is influenced byoral self care practices and lifestyle factors. Therefore; professionally organized oral healthself-care practices are very important for institutionalized older adults. Objective: Determinethe effect of oral health care interventions on oral health self care practices ofinstitutionalized older adults. Settings: Dar El-Amal in Mansoura city, Ras El bar elderlyhome in Ras El bar city, Dar El-Walaa in meet khamr city and Dar El saada in Tanta city.Subjects: 70 institutionalized older adults aged 60 years and above have no artificial teeth,have normal cognitive and have no depression. Tools: Five tools were used: Older AdultsSocio Demographic and Clinical Data Structured Interview Schedule, the Mini Mental StateExamination (MMSE) Scale, the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) Short Form, Older Adults Knowledge Related to Oral Health Structured Interview Schedule, and Older Adult s Oral SelfCare Practices. Results: positive improvement in the level of oral self care practices ofsubjects in the study group after implementation of the study intervention with a statisticallysignificant difference between the two groups. A higher mean score of oral self care practicesof subjects in the study group was found in males than females, in those with higher educationthan those with lower education and in those with higher monthly income than those withlower monthly income. Conclusion: Improved oral health knowledge and oral self carepractices among the majority of subjects in the study group. A higher mean score of oral selfcare practices was found in males than in females, in those with higher education and inthose with higher monthly income. A positive direct relationship was found between the oralhealth knowledge of subjects in the study group and their oral self-care practices.Recommendations: All institutionalized older adults should be follow periodic dentalexamination regularly with daily oral self care practices.