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| The oral health status of older patients in acute care on admission and Day 7 in two Australian hospitals |
| Author(s) | Jennifer Mary Gibney, Clive Wright, Anita Sharma |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 46, no 5, September 2017 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, September 2017 |
| Pages | pp 852-856 |
| Source | https://academic.oup.com/ageing |
| Keywords | Dental problems ; Admission [hospitals] ; Geriatric hospitals ; Acute illness ; Evaluation ; Australia. |
| Annotation | The objective of this study was to determine the oral health status of older patients in acute care wards at admission and after seven days. This was a prospective descriptive study conducted in two acute tertiary referral hospitals in New South Wales, Australia. Oral health was assessed on admission (within 24 hours) and after seven days using the Oral Health Assessment Tool. A total of 575 patients were admitted under the Geriatric teams at the two hospitals. 435 (76%) patients had oral cleanliness (debris) scores in the `not healthy' range with food particles, tartar or plaque evident in at least one area in most areas of the mouth, teeth or dentures. After seven days 206 were reassessed. 149 patients (73%) were in the `not healthy' range and of these 127 (62%) had the same score as on admission. Poor oral health is common in older people admitted to hospital acute care wards and does not improve over a seven-day period. Given the link between oral health and general health the next steps are to determine how oral health can be improved in this setting and to see whether this leads to better patient outcomes. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-171006209 A |
| Classmark | BLA: LD:QKH: LDA: CHA: 4C: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |