The association between malnutrition and oral health status in elderly in long-term care facilities: A systematic review

Abstract Background: elderly patients who spend long periods hospitalised or those who are in a situation of institutionalisation represent a risk group in this regard, since many of them suffer a degree of dependence and need help to perform the basic personal care tasks. It is therefore important to learn more about the oral health status of this group of patients in order to make a proper assessment of the situation as well as to develop protocols for its management. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review to ascertain the oral health status of elderly patients institutionalised or hospitalised for a long period of time.Methods: a systematic review of the literature published in three different databases (PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library) was conducted, with 12 different combinations of keywords based on the following selection criteria: studies published in the last 5 years, in English and/or Spanish and/or Portuguese, with samples of ≥30 patients, performed in patients older than 65 years, admitted to any type of institution and/or care centre for at least 7 days and in which the state of hard and/or soft tissues of the oral cavity were assessed in some way. The selected articles were subjected to a thorough analysis.Results: The search strategy covered 1,014 articles: 689 from Pubmed and 325 from Cochrane Library. After applying the eligibility criteria, five articles were selected for our review. The level of evidence of the articles was3, with a sample consisting of 773 patients in which most of them were women with an average age older than 70 years old.Conclusions: the oral health of patients aged more than 65 is worse than that of the rest of the population. Long-term in hospitals or being institutionalised in a retirement home makes this group susceptible to a worsening of their oral health status. It is necessary to develop protocols for the oral health care of these patients, accompanied by training programmes for the personnel.

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Oral health status of a long-term-care, veteran population

Community Dentistry And Oral Epidemiology ◽

10.1111/j.1600-0528.1993.tb00762.x ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 227-233 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Robert J. Weyant ◽

Judith A. Jones ◽

Melody Hobbins ◽

Linda C. Niessen ◽

Richard Adelson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Status ◽

Oral Health ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Oral Health Status ◽

Term Care

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Oral health assessment of older adults living in long-term care facilities by non-dental professionals: a systematic review protocol of instruments

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2021-050289 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. e050289

Author(s):

Lorrany Gabriela Rodrigues ◽

Mario Vianna Vettore ◽

Isadora Lemos Figueiredo ◽

Aline Araújo Sampaio ◽

Raquel Conceição Ferreira

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Older Adults ◽

Oral Health ◽

Long Term Care ◽

Health Assessment ◽

Measurement Properties ◽

Term Care ◽

Care Facilities ◽

Dental Professionals

IntroductionRegular oral health assessment among older adults living in long-term care facilities (LTCF) can improve their oral health. Different instruments have been developed and used to evaluate the oral health of institutionalised older people by non-dental professionals. These instruments must demonstrate adequate measurement properties. This systematic review aims to examine the studies describing the instruments employed to assess the oral health of older adults living in LTCF by non-dental professionals. The study will also evaluate the measurement properties of such instruments using the checklist proposed by the Consensus-based Standards to select health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN).Methods and analysisStudies describing the development of instruments for assessing oral health of institutionalised older adults by non-dental professionals will be included. Studies assessing at least one measurement property (validity, reliability or responsiveness) will be also considered. Electronic searches will be conducted on MEDLINE (PubMed, Ovid), Embase, Web of Science, Scopus and LILACS databases. Two independent reviewers will select the studies and will extract data concerning the characteristics of the research and the instrument. The measurement properties will be evaluated using the COSMIN checklist. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach will be used to grade the quality (or certainty) of evidence and strength of recommendations.Ethics and disseminationNo ethical approval is required. The results will be submitted for publication to a peer-review journal and presented at relevant conferences.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020191479.

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