• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2024

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the impact of care workers' knowledge of elderly oral health, education on elderly oral healthcare and behavioral needs, awareness of elderly oral healthcare, and actual practices in elderly oral healthcare. Furthermore, it explores the mediating effects of elderly oral healthcare education and behavioral needs on the relationship between awareness and practice. Methods: Data were collected from October 11 to December 29, 2023, from 172 certified care workers employed in nursing hospitals and other workplaces. For analyzing the data, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical regression were conducted using SPSS Statistics 21.0. Results: Elderly oral health knowledge, education and behavioral needs, awareness, and practice were significantly higher among: those aged 51 years and older, female, primarily working in nursing hospitals, with a total career span of 10 years, higher job satisfaction, in organizations prioritizing elderly oral healthcare, and with superior education in elderly oral health. Elderly oral healthcare education and behavioral needs had partial mediating effects on the relationship between care workers' awareness and practice of elderly oral healthcare. Conclusions: The current practices and challenges in care workers' oral healthcare for the elderly will be analyzed, and recommendations and strategies for improving practices will be formulated.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.432-441
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• 2016

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of professional oral healthcare program in eldery residents long-term care facilities. Ninety-four elderly residents from 5 different facilities in Asan participated in this study. The subjects were divided into 3 groups, with 32 in experimental group I, 30 in experimental group II, and 32 in the control group. Subjects in experimental group I were treated by a dental hygienist with professional oral healthcare and received daily oral care from caregivers who had completed elderly oral healthcare course. Subjects in experimental group II received daily oral care from caregivers who had completed elderly oral healthcare course. Control group received daily oral care from caregivers. These 3 groups were tested for dental plaque, halitosis, tongue coating, and salivary flow at baseline, and after 4 and 12 weeks of treatment. There were significant differences in the dental plaque index between the groups, mediate times, and mediate methods, in halitosis between the mediate methods, and in tongue coating between the mediate times, as well as the mediate methods. Finally, salivary flow was significantly different with regard to mediate methods between experimental group II and the control group. Therefore, to improve the oral health condition of elderly residents, involvement of a part-time dentist and scheduled professional oral healthcare are necessary. Furthermore, elderly oral healthcare education for nursing staff, including managers, should be provided.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.983-990
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• 2010

Objectives : This study was to investigate the level of oral health, xerostomia, and oral health related activities of daily living(ADL) and the clinical factors influencing oral health related quality of life(OHIP-14) in elderly for visiting healthcare. Methods : Data were obtained from a cross-sectional survey of 106 elderly people(mean age=$77.5{\pm}4.98$). Participants in the study were recruited when they attended the public health center in Cheonan-si. Data were collected by means of a personal interview from July 19 through to August 20, 2010. Oral health related ADL, OHIP-14 and dry mouth was measured by the total 24-items. The data was analysed with t-test, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression using the SPSS program. Results : Participants had a mean of 13.6 remaining natural teeth, which was significantly with age and perceived oral health. Xerostomia score achieved a mean of 6.39 out of a maximum 12 points. Powerful predictors of OHIP-14 were natural teeth, masticatory difficulty, oral pain, PHP index, perceived oral health, age and living together for the elderly Conclusions : Based on the findings, OHIP-14 has a significantly impact on oral health related ADL. These results suggest that elder people oral health promotion should be developed assessment index which was measured predictors related oral health in the elderly for visiting healthcare.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.635-643
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• 2020

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate dental hygienists understanding of the provisions of oral health care and awareness for the elderly. Methods: A survey was conducted among 285 dental hygienists, currently practicing around Gwangju province, Korea. The questionnaire contained questions on general characteristics of the subjects (5 items), oral health status of the elderly (5 items), and awareness (8 items) among the dental hygienists. The data were analyzed using a chi-square test. IBM SPSS 21.0 program was used for all statistical analyses. Results: The results showed that 47.7% of the dental hygienists took care of 1 to 5 elderly patients per day; they could not provide high quality oral health education to these patients because of lack of knowledge, lack of treatment time, and excessive workload. An analysis of the hygienists' professional educational experience related to oral healthcare of the elderly during university years showed that the older and more experienced hygienists' were less likely to have completed this education, i.e., 22.05% and 10.9%, respectively (p<0.001). Of all the dental hygienists, 62.8% were interested in oral health problems of the elderly, and 34.4% of dental hygienists for geriatric oral care were the most needed for geriatric oral care education (p<0.001). Conclusions: According to these results, it is important that dental hygienists participate in training on oral healthcare for the elderly and develop various programs for managing the oral health of the elderly.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.217-226
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to find out differences in oral health status, defined as their oral health and oral health quality of life among the elderly depending on their income and education levels. Methods: This study used 922 senior citizens over 65 from the data (2015) of the 6th National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHNS). The regression analysis was adopted to identify factors affecting their oral health status which has effect on their oral health quality of life. The statistical package SPSS 21.0 was employed. Frequency analysis, chi-squared analysis and regression analysis were used, and the significance level or Cronbach's alpha value was 0.05. Results: Depending on income levels, there were differences in their oral health status as to whether they use oral hygiene products, take dental examinations, join private health-insurances, and delay dental treatments or not. And educational levels also made significant differences in their oral health status as to whether they smoke, drink alcohol, how many times they brush teeth a day, whether they use oral hygiene products, take dental treatments, and join private health-insurances. Regression analysis on the relationship between their oral health status and the oral health quality of life showed that there were significant differences depending on whether they take dental treatments, delay dental medical treatments, smoke, take oral examinations, how many times they brush teeth a day, and whether they use oral hygiene products, or join private health-insurances. Conclusions: The study shows that a comprehensive plan is needed to raise attention on proper oral health-care and ultimately to improve the quality of life by considering the daily number of tooth brushing, oral hygiene product use, regular dental treatments, and other medical uses.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.485-492
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• 2017

This study investigated the relevancy between the subjective awareness and the level of knowledge of oral health by surveying oral health management behaviors of elderly citizens over 60 years old in certain areas. The survey was conducted from September 1 to December 30, 2016 among the elderly aged 60 or older in the GyeongBuk, and 442 responses were used in the data analysis. The statistical analysis methods were frequency analysis, t-test and ANOVA analysis. The subjective oral health awareness in accordance with oral health management behaviors were higher in the groups who brush their teeth better and for longer duration (p<.05), where the oral health knowledge level in accordance with oral health management behaviors were higher in the groups who received toothbrushing training (p<.05). Based on the above results, the subjective oral health awareness and the oral health knowledge level of elderly citizens should be improved through continuous educations for ideal oral health management behaviors in order to promote oral health of elderly citizens.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.51 no.9
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• pp.494-500
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• 2013

Recently, several researches indicated the relationship between oral condition and respiratory disease such as pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Respiratory disease is known as common chronic disease in the elderly increasing mortality and morbidity. In this study, we have reviewed the association between oral disease and respiratory disease in the elderly. The related data were searched and collected from abroad and domestic studies. The studies included the randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs), longitudinal, cohort, case-control, and systematic review studies. With the data from the studies, we concluded that poor oral hygiene or periodontal disease can influence the pneumonia in the elderly. Further studies will be needed to investigate the association between oral disease and COPD.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.899-911
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the educational needs for geriatric dental hygiene and provide basic data for developing standard curricula for geriatric hygiene. Methods: To investigate the educational needs for geriatric dental hygiene, 212 students from dental hygiene departments and 205 dental hygienists engaged in clinical practice were enrolled. Results: Among the educational needs for geriatric dental hygiene, Geriatric oral health issues category was the highest with 4.06 points for students and 4.05 points for dental hygienists. Students who completed a geriatric dental hygiene course had higher scores for the following sub-domains compared to those who did not: need for geriatric dental hygiene-related theoretical education (p=0.002), needs for practice education with elderly people (p=0.001), and confidence in performing oral healthcare for elderly people after graduation (p<0.001). Meanwhile, clinical dental hygienists who not completed geriatric-related courses had higher scores for, need for geriatric dental hygiene-related theoretical education, need for practice education with elderly people, and confidence in performing oral healthcare for elderly people. but, there was no significant difference (p>0.05). Conclusions: The results of this study showed that students and dental hygienists had high educational needs for geriatric dental hygiene. In particular, there was a high demand for education related to Geriatric oral health issues as well as Geriatric dental hygiene care and skills.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.457-467
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• 2020

Objectives: This study confirms the current status of visiting oral health-care services for the elderly to draw policy implications for revitalization of the visiting oral health care services in the future. Methods: First, a survey was conducted on health centers about the current status of the elderly visiting oral health-care service and how to revitalize it. Next, the number of oral hygiene services provided to the elderly was checked in the long-term care insurance system. Results: Oral health education (100%) was the most common practice in visiting oral health-care service for the elderly, and the most difficult thing in providing services was the lack of dental hygienists (38.9%). The status of oral health-care services in the long-term care insurance system for elderly revealed that the total number of service claims has been confirmed to be zero since the introduction of the system. Conclusions: Despite the existence of a system that provides elderly visiting oral healthcare services, to revitalize it, the law must be amended to secure a dental hygienist as the main agent of the activity and to further take responsibility for autonomous authority and performance.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2023

This study was conducted to identify factors related to discomfort while speaking in the elderly and provide fundamental data for establishing oral health care policies for a healthy old age. Using the raw data from the 8th wave of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2020), we conducted an analysis to examine the relationship between speaking discomfort and mental health, as well as oral health care behavior, among 1,278 elderly individuals in Korea. Differences in speaking discomfort were analyzed based on general characteristics, mental health, and oral health care behavior using complex sample cross-analysis. Additionally, factors associated with speaking discomfort were analyzed using complex sample multiple logistic regression analysis. As a result, individuals with depression experienced higher levels of speaking discomfort (p<0.05), and individuals experiencing high levels of stress also reported higher levels of speaking discomfort (p<0.05). As a factor affecting speaking discomfort, it was found that speaking discomfort was 2.56 times higher (p<0.001) when dental care was not met, and speaking discomfort was 3.05 times higher (p<0.05) when teeth brushing was less frequent. As a result of the aforementioned findings, it is believed that a customized oral health promotion program is necessary to expand dental health insurance coverage for the elderly and improve oral healthcare.