요양기관 종사자의 구강건강관리 교육경험에 따른 구강건강인식정도와 구강건강관리 제공 실태

Oral Health Awareness and Oral Health Care Provision Status according to Oral Health Care Education Experience of Long-Term Care Workers

Objectives: This study aims to identify the oral health care education experience of long-term care workers and their oral health awareness and oral health care provision status according to their education experience. Methods: A survey was administered from June 8, 2020 to July 24, 2020, targeting to 186 long-term care workers in crtain areas of Busan. The program SPSS 25.0 was used to analyze the collected data. Frequency analyses were conducted to identify the general characteristics, problems, and improvement points of oral health care in elderly inpatients recognized by the long-term care workers. Furthermore, chi-square tests were performed For to determine the workers’ oral health knowledge according to their oral health care education experience. Finally, for the oral health care provision and awareness of the need for oral health care, means and standard deviations were obtained. Results: The oral health care education experience of the long-term care workers was significant for their oral health care knowledge, showing higher scores in positive answers (p<.001)(p<.01). In terms of the oral health care provided to elderly inpatients by the long-term care workers, oral health care awareness, and oral health care necessity, workers with oral health care education experience had a more positive score than did workers without oral health care education experience, and the difference was significant (p<.001). Conclusions: Therefore, this study is significant in that it reconsiders the necessity and importance of systematic oral health education for long-term care workers. The study outcomes are expected to be used as fundamental data in the field of elderly oral health by providing a direction for elderly oral health care in preparation for an ultra-aging society.