Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Dankook University, Cheonan-si 31116, Korea.
Department of Dental Hygiene, College of Health Science, Dankook University, Cheonan-si 31116, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Nov 7;18(21):11679. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182111679.
This study investigated the effect of oral health education using a mobile app (OHEMA) on the oral health and swallowing-related quality of life (SWAL-QoL) of the elderly population in a community-based integrated care project (CICP). Forty elderly individuals in the CICP were randomized into intervention and control groups. OHEMA provided information on customized oral health care management, oral exercises, and intraoral and extraoral massage methods for 50 min/session, once a week, for 6 weeks. Pre- and post-intervention surveys assessed the unstimulated salivary flow rate, subjective oral dryness, tongue pressure, and SWAL-QoL, which were analyzed using ANCOVA and repeated measures ANOVA. In the intervention group, tongue pressure increased significantly from pre- (17.75) to post-intervention (27.24) ( < 0.001), and subjective oral dryness decreased from pre- (30.75) to post-intervention (18.50). The unstimulated salivary flow rate had a higher mean score in the intervention group (7.19) than in the control group (5.04) ( < 0.001). The SWAL-QoL significantly improved from pre- (152.10) to post-intervention (171.50) in the intervention group ( < 0.001) but did not change significantly in the control group ( > 0.05). OHEMA appears to be a useful tool for oral health education for the elderly as it improved the SWAL-QoL, with increased tongue pressure and reduced oral dryness.
本研究旨在探讨基于社区的综合护理项目（CICP）中使用移动应用程序（OHEMA）进行口腔健康教育对老年人群口腔健康和吞咽相关生活质量（SWAL-QoL）的影响。CICP 中的 40 名老年人被随机分为干预组和对照组。OHEMA 提供有关定制口腔保健管理、口腔运动和口腔内外按摩方法的信息，每次 50 分钟，每周一次，共 6 周。在干预前和干预后进行调查，评估未刺激唾液流量、主观口腔干燥、舌压和 SWAL-QoL，使用协方差分析和重复测量方差分析进行分析。在干预组中，舌压从干预前（17.75）显著增加到干预后（27.24）（<0.001），主观口腔干燥度从干预前（30.75）降低到干预后（18.50）。干预组未刺激唾液流量的平均得分（7.19）高于对照组（5.04）（<0.001）。SWAL-QoL 在干预组从干预前（152.10）显著提高到干预后（171.50）（<0.001），但对照组没有显著变化（>0.05）。OHEMA 似乎是一种有用的老年人口腔健康教育工具，因为它提高了 SWAL-QoL，增加了舌压，减轻了口腔干燥。
