P613 - CLINICAL EFFECTIVENESS BY INTRODUCTION OF STANDARDIZED ORAL ASSESSMENT AND CARE

P613

CLINICAL EFFECTIVENESS BY INTRODUCTION OF STANDARDIZED ORAL ASSESSMENT AND CARE

M. Itami^1,*, T. Nakatani², S. Yamamoto³, M. Horiuchi³, Y. Tsujino⁴, R. Nakamura⁵, M. Sakamoto⁵, R. Tsujimoto¹, S. Nishimura⁶, R. Mizogami⁵, H. Tsukamoto¹, A. Murashima¹, K. Nishiura¹, H. Shimotsuji⁷, Y. Yokota⁸

¹Nursing, ²Gastroenterology, Yamato Takada Municipal Hospital, ³YAMAMOTO DENTAL CLINIC, ⁴Nutrition Management, ⁵Pharmacy, ⁶Rehabilitation, Yamato Takada Municipal Hospital, ⁷SHIMOTSUJI DENTAL CLINIC, ⁸Otorhinolaryngology, Yamato Takada Municipal Hospital, Nara, Japan

Rationale: Oral care has been focused on as an effective means for preventing aspiration pneumonia.  We introduced OHAT-J (Oral Health Assessment Tool- Japanese) to assess the oral environment and carried out standardized oral care.

Methods: Oral care was performed according to OHAT-J’s assessment procedures and techniques in combination with swallowing rehabilitation on 23 patients (average age: 86.4) who were admitted to our hospital and were unable to perform oral care independently. The total OHAT-J scores were aggregated, and changes in the oral environment were examined by each category. The nutritional status including albumin, nutritional sufficiency rate, and the incidence of aspiration pneumonia during the observation period were also evaluated. 

Results: The average OHAT total score before and after intervention (pre/post) was 5.91±2.79/3.13±2.07 (p<0.05), showing a significant decrease, confirming an improvement in the oral environment. By category, the scores were: “Lips” (0.48±0.67/0.42±0.59), “Tongue” (0.71±0.64/0.52±0.60), “Gums and Mucosa” (0.90±0.70/0.47±0.60, p<0.05), “Saliva” (0.76±0.76/0.71±0.64), “Remaining Teeth” (1.14±0.85/0.85±0.72), “Dentures” (0.57±0.87/0.23±0.62), “Oral Cleanliness” (1.19±0.67/0.42±0.50, p<0.05), and “Tooth Pain” (0.14±0.47/0±0, p<0.05). “Gums and Mucosa”, “Oral Cleanliness”, and “Tooth Pain” showed a significant improvement, and other categories showed trends of improvement as well. In result, the pneumonia incidence rate was 43.5% (10/23)/4.3% (1/23) (p<0.05), showing a significant decrease. Also, the nutritional sufficiency rate was 39.5±27.0/60.3±33.5 (p<0.05), showing significant improvement through the prevention of aspiration pneumonia. While Albumin (2.33±0.49/2.44±0.67) exhibited an upward trend, the results were not statistically significant.

Conclusion: Oral care using OHAT-J is feasible as it could improve nutritional status through the prevention of aspiration pneumonia.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared