Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted. A total of 79 community residents, 120 CKD patients and 101 ESRD patients agreed to participate and completed all data collection. Instruments for data collection included: questionnaires (demographic information, oral hygiene habit, attitude and knowledge related to oral health, and geriatric oral health assessment index_GOHAI) and oral inspection (done by a trained assistant).
Results:
The comparisons of demographic data showed that samples in CKD group were more male and lower educated. In addition, the age in ESRD group was significantly older than the CKD and community residents groups.
In regard to the performance of oral health, results of comparison showed that community residents had better performance than the other two groups in general. Specifically, the ESRD group reported lowest ratio in tooth brush at “after breakfast”, “after dinner” and “after eating”. Also, ESRD group reported a higher ratio in “never receive teeth examination”. The comparison of knowledge related to oral health showed that CKD group was the one with lower level than the other two groups. In addition, the comparison of attitude toward oral health found that community residents group reported more positive than the other two groups.
The results of personal inspection showed that CKD group had less untreated dental caries whereas the ESRD group had higher ratio of untreated dental caries. In addition, ESRD group had higher ratio of “0-5 loss teeth” in upper jaw whereas the CKD group had higher ratio of “11-15 loss teeth” in lower jaw. In regard to the dentures, CKD group had a higher ratio of active dentures and the ESRD group had a less ratio of full dentures.
The comparison of oral health-related quality of life showed that CKD group reported less total score than the groups of community residents and CKD patients. The comparisons of subscales showed that the CKD group had lower score in the psychosocial impact subscale than the groups of community residents and ESRD patients. For the pain and discomfort dimension, the group of community residents reported higher scores than the ESRD and CKD group. In addition, subjects in ESRD group reported higher scores than patients in CKD group.
Conclusion: The oral health status in the community residents, CKD patients, and ESRD patients were no good, measured by both subjective and objective methods. And limited patients had searched for medical treatment actively. The health care professions need to pay more attention to the oral health status of these specific subjects and referred them to dentist timely. Thus a holistic care could be achieved.
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