Dental survey of older adults in care homes in Grampian V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Dental survey of older adults in care homes in Grampian
IRAS ID
230871
Contact name
J Iloya
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Aberdeen
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 12 days
Research summary
Background: Recent data have reported a greater increase in older age groups as compared to other population groups in Scotland. This suggests that greater number of nursing and care homes will provide accommodation for older people above 65 years of age. This group is most likely to be frail with complex medical and dental needs. The Scottish Health Survey excludes older adults living in care homes from sampling. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the oral health status and needs of care home residents in Grampian.
Methods: This will be a cross sectional survey of care home residents 65 years and over in Grampian using a multistage cluster sampling. The study intends to recruit 714 randomly selected participants from 31 randomly selected care homes to achieve a final sample size of 350. Measures of oral health related quality of life (OHIP-14), recall ability, dependency, dental behaviours, demographic characteristics will be collected using a questionnaire together with an oral clinical examination. The data will be analysed using SPSS.
Conclusion: Older adults are more likely to become heavily dependent in the future yet there is potential to improve their oral health before this occurs. This segment of older people has not been surveyed with regards to oral health in the Grampian region before. A survey of this group will provide information about their dental health needs, oral health inequalities, impact and requirements of dental services. This information would be valuable to the health authorities to effectively plan local dental services and demonstrate the extent to which government dental health targets are being met.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
17/IEC08/0043
Date of REC Opinion
7 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion