Are oral health education for carers effective in the oral hygiene management of elderly with dementia? A systematic review

Elderly with dementia or cognitive impairment are at increased risk of poor oral health. Oral healtheducation programs targeting carers may be an effective strategy to improve oral hygiene. Theaim of this review was to assess the effectiveness of oral health education programs for carers onthe oral hygiene of elderly with dementia. A literature search was performed to identify studiespublished in five electronic databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO),without time and language restrictions. Two independent coders extracted data and assessed therisk of bias for each included study. Of the 243 studies, only four studies met the inclusion criteria.All four studies reported a significant improvement for some oral health measures in dementiaelderly following a carer oral health education program. The included studies did not report anyother relevant outcomes of interest for this review. This review identifies limited evidence for acarer oral health education as an efficient means to improve oral health in dementia elderly. Thereview also clearly highlights the need for well ‑designed, high‑quality studies with more relevantoutcome measures to better address this knowledge gap.
Source: Dental Research Journal - Category: Dentistry Source Type: research