Abstract
We quantified the effectiveness of an oral health intervention among home care recipients. Seven German insurance funds invited home care recipients to participate in a two-arm randomized controlled trial. At t0, the treatment group (TG) received an intervention comprising an oral health assessment, dental treatment recommendations and oral health education. The control group (CG) received usual care. At t1, blinded observers assessed objective (Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT)) and subjective (Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP)) oral health and the objective periodontal situation (Periodontal Screening Index (PSI)). Of 9656 invited individuals, 527 (5.5%) participated. In the TG, 164 of 259 (63.3%) participants received the intervention and 112 (43.2%) received an outcome assessment. In the CG, 137 of 268 (51.1%) participants received an outcome assessment. The OHAT mean score (2.83 vs. 3.31, p = 0.0665) and the OHIP mean score (8.92 vs. 7.99, p = 0.1884) did not differ significantly. The prevalence of any periodontal problems (77.1% vs. 92.0%, p = 0.0027) was significantly lower in the TG than in the CG, but the prevalence of periodontitis was not (35.4% vs. 44.6%, p = 0.1764). Future studies should investigate whether other recruitment strategies and a more comprehensive intervention might be more successful in improving oral health among home care recipients.
Highlights
The objective of this study was to quantify the effectiveness of an oral health intervention comprising the provision of an oral health assessment, dental treatment recommendations and oral health education to home care recipients via a pro-active, low-threshold, outreach approach
Stratified by insurance fund, the participants were randomly assigned by the Competence Center for Clinical Trials to the treatment group (TG) or the control group (CG) with a 1:1 ratio
The lower prevalence of periodontal problems was only observed among participants receiving only informal care (Supplementary Materials Part B). This RCT quantified the effectiveness of an oral health intervention comprising an oral health assessment, dental treatment recommendations and oral health education among home care recipients
Summary
Oral health is an important contributor to quality of life and wellbeing [1,2]. People in need of long-term care (LTC) are, typically less able to brush their own teeth, take care of their dentures and visit dental practices [5,6]. This can lead to a decline in oral health, the occurrence of dental pain, an increased risk of tooth loss, a deterioration of nutritional status and the development of systemic diseases [7,8,9]
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