The effect of multimodal comprehensive care methodology training on oral health care professionals’ empathy for patients with dementia

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe prevalence of oral diseases in people with dementia has increased, and such patients have worse oral health than do people without dementia. However, in the provision of oral care, they often exhibit care‐resistant behaviours. Empathy is an important element of health care professionals who provide dental care for people with dementia. A study was conducted to assess whether a multimodal comprehensive care methodology training programme is associated with an improvement in empathy for people with dementia among oral health care professionals.MethodsThis research was a pre‐post prospective study. A total of 45 dentists and dental hygienists participated in a 7‐hour multimodal comprehensive care methodology training programme. The empathy of the participants for their patients was evaluated by the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy‐Health Professionals Version (JSPE‐HP) before and one month after the training (primary outcome). Each participant listed 3 patients from his or her clinical practice about whom he or she felt that providing dental care to them was difficult due to dementia. The oral health of the 3 patients refusing care provided by each participant was evaluated by the Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT) before and one month after the training (secondary outcome).ResultsThe post‐training response rates were 87% (21 dentists, 18 dental hygienists). Over the course of the programme, the multimodal comprehensive care methodology training significantly increased the empathy score from pre‐training to post‐training (from 113.97 to 122.95, P<0.05, effect size=0.9). Regardless of gender, profession and years of clinical experience, all post‐training subgroup scores were higher than the pre‐training subgroup scores. The oral health of patients, as assessed by the OHAT, was significantly improved compared with their oral health before the training (from 6.54 to 5.71, P<0.05).ConclusionsMultimodal comprehensive care methodology training was associated with an improvement in oral health professionals’ empathy for patients with dementia and an improvement in the oral health of their patients.