Evaluate five different diagnostic tests for dry mouth assessment in geriatric residents in long-term institutions in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Residents in long-term care (LTC) institutions require care plans to effectively resolve dry mouth. Simple and easily comprehensible dry mouth indices must be developed to assist care professionals in determining dry mouth among residents. Therefore, this study aim of the study was to evaluate five different diagnostic tests for dry mouth assessment. METHODS: A total of 568 residents were recruited from several LTC institutions in central Taiwan. The research instruments and tools comprised of the characteristics of the residents, state of oral health care, self-perceived ability to chew food, Taiwanese short-form of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-7 T), self-perceived levels of dry mouth, oral moisture checking, and a repetitive saliva swallowing test (RSST). The data collected were analyzed through demographic analysis, Correlation coefficient and chi-squared automatic interaction detection. RESULTS: Results of the decision tree analysis indicated that RSST results, tooth brushing frequency, and age were the three indices that exerted the greatest influence on oral moisture levels. Specifically, in residents with relatively high RSST results, a daily tooth brushing frequency > 1, and an age < 68 years exhibited more favorable oral moisture levels. The results indicated that residents' self-perceived oral status was not associated with their oral moisture levels. CONCLUSION: The three indices can be provided to LTC institutions for on-site assessment of dry mouth among residents to facilitate early detection of those with dry mouth.

Home-care aides' self-perception of oral health-care provision competency for community-dwelling older people.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the circumstances in which home-care aides (HAs) provide oral health care to homebound patients and to examine the degree of comfort and knowledge that HAs have regarding their own skills in providing oral health care. METHODS: Seven home-care facilities in central Taiwan consented to participate in this cross-sectional study. The participants were selected through convenience sampling. A total of 312 effective responses were obtained (the effective response rate was 64.0%). SPSS, version 17, was used to perform statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: Oral health-care work had a minimal impact on the psychological burden of the HAs. However, factors affecting the self-perception of the HAs regarding their competency in oral health-care provision included 'whether oral health care is a part of home care' (ß = -0.195, P = 0.006), 'whether patients had difficulty chewing' (ß = -0.178, P = 0.001), 'vomiting during oral health care' (ß = 0.133, P = 0.001), 'having HA certification' (ß = 0.120, P = 0.030), 'whether premeal oral exercises were performed' (ß = 0.141, P = 0.012), 'finger biting during the provision of oral care' (ß = -0.115, P = 0.039) and 'time constraints for provision of care' (ß = 0.143, P = 0.042). CONCLUSIONS: Enhancing HAs' self-perception of their competency in oral health-care provision can help develop in-service training courses focused on oral health care for older adults, thereby further strengthening HAs' competency in oral health-care provision.