Plain English Summary
Background and study aims
Oral care training for the elderly can help to reduce the rapid deterioration of oral diseases and the incidence of aspiration pneumonia, and further improve their health and quality of life. There is also an association between poor oral health status and cognitive impairment. This study aims to develop and apply a new method of basic oral hygiene care for the elderly with dementia, and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention.
Who can participate?
Elderly with mild dementia who have at least four pairs of functional teeth
What does the study involve?
Participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental group or the control group. A one-on-one oral health education teaching activity will be conducted with experimental group members and their primary caregivers by a well-trained dental hygienist, including oral hygiene skill, chewing and swallowing practices, safe eating methods, dietary options, methods to reduce the risk of coughing, and oral function rehabilitation training. The participants will be encouraged to do it themselves at home at least once a day. Researchers will call experimental group participants twice a month by phone to check if they have problems with daily oral care. For those participants in the control group, participants are given a leaflet to read which includes general information about oral health. Before and after 3 and 6 months a questionnaire will be used to collect data on oral health care behaviours, oral hygiene, oral hygiene, and body mass index (BMI).
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Participants may benefit from an improvement to their oral health, oral function, and quality of life. Risks of participating in the study are low, participants may feel uncomfortable during the oral examination.
Where is the study run from?
Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital and Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital (Taiwan)
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
January 2018 to December 2020
Who is funding the study?
National Health Research Institutes (Taiwan)
Who is the main contact?
Prof. Hsiao-Ling Huang
hhuang@kmu.edu.tw
Trial website
Contact information
Type
Scientific
Primary contact
Prof Hsiao-Ling Huang
ORCID ID
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1180-9011
Contact details
No.100
Shin-Chuan 1st Road
Sanmin Dist.
Kaohsiung City
80708
Taiwan
+886 (0)7 3121101 ext. 2159
hhuang@kmu.edu.tw
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
Nil known
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Nil known
Protocol/serial number
NHRI-107AI-PHCO-03181808
Study information
Scientific title
Follow-up study of oral health care and oral function intervention for elderly patients with dementia: a randomized controlled trial
Acronym
Study hypothesis
The basic oral health care and oral function intervention is an effective method for elderly patients with dementia.
Ethics approval
Approved 11/05/2018, Institutional review board of Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital (No. 100, Tzyou 1st Road, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan; +886 (0)7 3121101 ext. 6646; irb-training@kmuh.org.tw), ref: KMUHIRB-SV(I)-20180015
Study design
Randomized controlled trial
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Randomised controlled trial
Trial setting
Hospitals
Trial type
Treatment
Patient information sheet
Not available in web format.
Condition
Oral health of elderly patients with mild dementia (Clinical Dementia Rating=1.0)
Intervention
In this study, the elderly with mild dementia will be recruited in the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital and Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital. The physicians of Neurology Dementia outpatient clinic will recommend 200 suitable participants to the study. Participants will be randomly assigned using paper bags to the experimental group (EG) and control group (CG); each group has 100 participants.
A 30 minutes face-to-face teaching activity for EG participants and their caregivers was implemented by a well-trained dental hygienist. It concluded oral function promotion exercise and oral care methods, using a leaflet and dental models as teaching aids. Dental hygienist shared experiences with the participants and their caregivers, and consult immediately to improve the learning effect. The intervention aims to let the participants have sufficient oral care abilities at home, eat safely and effectively, reduce chewing and swallowing problems, obtain adequate nutrition, reduce the incidence of choking. In order to overcome the situation that many participants do not live with their children, or do not have a daily primary caregiver, special aids are designed. They were given to the participants to use at home, including: refrigerator magnets (remind to do oral function promotion exercise), stickers for bathroom mirror (reminder for oral cleaning), and "oral care logbook", provide participants to record their daily oral care activities. Moreover, the EG participants received one reminder phone call every 2 weeks from researcher.
For those participants in the CG, participants are given a leaflet to read which includes general information about oral health.
Pre-test for two groups will be done before. There are post-tests after 3 months and 6 months. A structured questionnaire will be used to collect data on oral health care behaviors, plaque index (PI), Winkel tongue coating index (WTCI), repetitive saliva swallowing test (RSST), measurement of the oral diadochokinetic (DDK), and body mass index (BMI). T-tests, Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and logistic regression will be used for analysis.
Intervention type
Behavioural
Phase
Drug names
Primary outcome measure
1. Oral hygiene measured using the Plaque Index (PI) and Winkel tongue coating index (WTCI) at pre-test and after 3 and 6 months
2. Oral function measured using the repetitive saliva swallowing test (RSST), oral diadochokinesis (DDK), perceived xerostomia and dysphagia scales at pre-test and after 3 and 6 months
3. Physical status measured using the Body Mass Index (BMI) at pre-test and after 3 and 6 months
Secondary outcome measures
Oral health care behaviors measured using questionnaire at pre-test and after 3 and 6 months
Overall trial start date
01/01/2018
Overall trial end date
31/12/2020
Reason abandoned (if study stopped)
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
1. Aged over 65 years
2. Diagnosis of mild dementia (Clinical Dementia Rating=1.0)
Participant type
Patient
Age group
Senior
Gender
Both
Target number of participants
200
Participant exclusion criteria
1. Patients with post-stroke dementia
2. Smokers or betel quid chewers, or both users who have quit less than 6 months
3. Conditions that cause patients can not receive examination or intervention (such as blind, deaf)
4. Patients who have fewer than 4 pairs of functional teeth
Recruitment start date
14/06/2018
Recruitment end date
30/06/2020
Locations
Countries of recruitment
Taiwan
Trial participating centre
Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital
No.100, Tzyou 1st Rd, Sanmin Dist.
Kaohsiung City
80756
Taiwan
Trial participating centre
Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital
No.68, Jhonghua 3rd Rd, Cianjin District
Kaohsiung City
80145
Taiwan
Sponsor information
Organisation
National Health Research Institutes
Sponsor details
No. 35
Keyan Rd
Zhunan Town
Miaoli County
Miaoli County
35053
Taiwan
+886 (0)37 206 166
webmaster@nhri.org.tw
Sponsor type
Government
Website
Funders
Funder type
Government
Funder name
National Health Research Institutes (Taiwan)
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
Planned publication in a high-impact peer-reviewed journal. Additional documents are not available now.
IPD sharing statement
The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study during this study will be included in the subsequent results publication.
Intention to publish date
31/12/2021
Participant level data
Other
Basic results (scientific)
Publication list