Older People Living in Nursing Homes: An Oral Health Screening Survey in Florence, Italy

The oral health state plays an important role in the concept of 'elderly frailty', since institutionalized older people are prone to suffering from bad oral conditions. The aim of this study is to assess the state of oral health in the older residents of nursing homes and to measure its po...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2019-09, Vol.16 (18), p.3492
Main Authors: Chiesi, Fabrizio, Grazzini, Maddalena, Innocenti, Maddalena, Giammarco, Barbara, Simoncini, Enrico, Garamella, Giuseppe, Zanobini, Patrizio, Perra, Caterina, Baggiani, Lorenzo, Lorini, Chiara, Bonaccorsi, Guglielmo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of daily living
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Autonomy
Cognitive ability
Cross-Sectional Studies
Dental materials
Dentures
Female
Frail Elderly - statistics & numerical data
Frailty
Health
Homes for the Aged - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Italy
Male
Malnutrition
Mastication
Medical screening
Mucosa
Nursing homes
Nursing Homes - statistics & numerical data
Older people
Oral Health - statistics & numerical data
Oral hygiene
Pain
Physical activity
Population
Prostheses
Quality of life
Teeth
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Summary:The oral health state plays an important role in the concept of 'elderly frailty', since institutionalized older people are prone to suffering from bad oral conditions. The aim of this study is to assess the state of oral health in the older residents of nursing homes and to measure its potential association with the cognitive state, the degree of functional autonomy, and the malnutrition risk. Methods: We enrolled 176 subjects from 292 residents in five nursing homes in Florence. For each subject, we performed the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool, the Pfeiffer test, the Minimum Data Set-Long Form, a dental examination, and the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index questionnaire. The results show that the oral condition was poor in 43.8% of cases, medium in 38.1%, and good in 18.2%. A worse oral health state was significantly associated ( < 0.05) with a worse cognitive state and with a higher dependency in daily living activities. The malnutrition score among the older people was unrelated to the oral health condition ( = 0.128). It can be concluded that the oral health condition in older institutionalized subjects is an open challenge for the public healthcare system, since the maintenance of adequate good oral health is an essential element of good physical as well as cognitive and psychological health.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph16183492