The Effects of the Oral Care Program for Improving Swallowing Function of the Elderly Using Welfare Centers on Depression, Self Efficacy, Subjective Oral Health Status and Swallowing related Quality of Life

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study was conducted to examine the effects of the oral care program for improving swallowing function of the elderly using welfare centers on depression, self efficacy, subjective oral health status and swallowing related quality of life. @*Methods@#The intervention in this study was systematically developed through the six stages of Intervention Mapping Protocol (IMP) and was based on Mead’s symbolic interaction theory and Bandura's self efficacy theory. A non equivalent control group pre and post-test design was conducted on a total of 37 elderly people (experimental group: 19, control group: 18) from D city. The oral care program was administered to the experimental group once a week for five weeks, totaling five times, and the exact program ran for 50 minutes. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 25.0 program. @*Results@#Following the intervention, subjective oral health score, and swallowing related quality of life were significantly improved in the experimental group. @*Conclusion@#The oral care program presented in this study was found to be effective in increasing subjective oral health status, and swallowing related quality of life for the elderly using welfare centers.