Effect of Oral Health Education Using a Mobile App (OHEMA) on the Oral Health and Swallowing-Related Quality of Life in Community-Based Integrated Care of the Elderly: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Ji-Yun Ki, Se-Rim Jo, Kyung-Sook Cho, Jung-Eun Park, Ja-Won Cho and Jong-Hwa Jang
Additional contact information
Ji-Yun Ki: Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Dankook University, Cheonan-si 31116, Korea
Se-Rim Jo: Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Dankook University, Cheonan-si 31116, Korea
Kyung-Sook Cho: Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Dankook University, Cheonan-si 31116, Korea
Jung-Eun Park: Department of Dental Hygiene, College of Health Science, Dankook University, Cheonan-si 31116, Korea
Ja-Won Cho: Department of Preventive Dentistry, College of Dentistry, Dankook University, Cheonan-si 31116, Korea
Jong-Hwa Jang: Department of Public Health, Graduate School, Dankook University, Cheonan-si 31116, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-13

Abstract: 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) ( p < 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) ( p < 0.001). The SWAL-QoL significantly improved from pre- (152.10) to post-intervention (171.50) in the intervention group ( p < 0.001) but did not change significantly in the control group ( p > 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.

Keywords: elderly; oral care; oral education; home care; xerostomia; swallowing-related quality of life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11679/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11679/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11679-:d:673829

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().