O22 Eating behaviour of institutionalized elderly people in relation to tongue cleaning

Introduction Backing the oral hygiene of elderly people in need of care is an important task for geriatric nursing personal. Tongue cleaning has been generally recommended to improve the oral hygiene status, to prevent the development of oral malodour, and to improve the sense of taste. In Germany, no official recommendations for oral hygiene procedures in hospitals or nursing homes are available and if tongue cleaning is performed a regular toothbrush or a wooden spatula are mainly used. So far, only limited data have been published regarding the influence of tongue cleaning on taste sensation. Aim Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate, whether a regime of daily tongue cleaning with a specially designed tongue cleaner could improve the eating behaviour of institutionalised elderly patients. Methods The study population consisted of 150 edentulous occupants (mean age 74 ± 4 s.d.) of a nursing home in Goettingen. Each subject served as its own control. During the test phase of 2 weeks each participant received five times daily a tongue cleaning procedure using the One Drop Only tongue cleaner (One Drop Only, Berlin; Germany; a combination of a tongue brush and a tongue scraper). During the control run the tongue cleaning was carried out also five times daily over a 2-week period using a regular toothbrush. All procedures were performed by a carefully instructed geriatric nurse. As a measure for the eating behaviour the amount of spurned and returned drinks and food was determined by weighing. The individual impression of taste was also determined by using a questionnaire. All subjects were able to eat and drink without assistance. Results During the test period the subjects reported an increased appetite and only 18.3% of the served food and 17.1% of the served drinks were spurned and returned. In contrast, during the control phase the subjects returned 52% of the food and 53.2% of the drinks. These differences were statistically significant (P