초록
Objectives : The growing elderly population and social changes have fueled a rapid increase in demand for elderly care facilities, but health care services for the elderly, especially oral health services, have long been overlooked. The purpose of this study was to examine the oral health care of elderly residents in elderly care facilities in an effort to provide some information on the elderly's oral health care and the development of dental care programs geared toward institutionalized elderly people. Methods : The subjects in this study were 230 elderly people who were in elderly care facilities in Jeolla Province. An individual interview was held, and they got a dental checkup. As for data analysis, t-test and ANOVA were utilized, and Scheffe post-hoc test was employed. Results : 1. In relation to the subfactors of the quality of life related to oral health, the elderly people investigated got a mean of 4.58, 4.47, 4.38, 4.09, 3.94, 3.91 and 3.76 respectively in activity disorder, mental disorder, social disorder, mental inconvenience, functional disorder, physical pain and physical disorder. 2. Concerning the overall quality of life related to oral health, there were statistically significant gaps in this aspect according to gender, age, presence or absence of systemic disorder, presence or absence of eating difficulties, subjective health status, subjective oral health state and oral health concern. 3. The presence or absence of root caries had a significant relationship to physical pain and social disorder among the subfactors of the OHIP-14, but that had nothing to do with functional disorder, mental inconvenience, physical disorder, mental disorder and activity disorder. Conclusions : The oral health indexes of the institutionalized elderly people in Jeolla Province were measured, and what factors affected the subfactors of oral health was checked. As a result, there appeared a close relation ship between oral health and the quality of life. Therefore effective oral health plans that cater to the elderly should be carried out to improve elderly people's quality of life related to oral health who stay in long-term elderly care facilities. In the future, prolonged research should be implemented from diverse angles for the sake of institutionalized elderly people.