Oral health promotion program for fostering self-management of the elderly living in communities

Objectives: A program fostering self-management for the elderly was implemented and the effects of the program and their continuities were assessed. Methods: Subjects consisted of 19 males and 131 females (average age, 73.1 ± 7.4; range, 60–94 years). The intervention program consisted of the collective experience learning and private consultation. The collective experience learnings included; (1) monitoring the oral condition and practicing oral self-care, (2) monitoring the oral function and practicing oral exercises, and (3) group discussion on continuing oral self-care. Outcomes were evaluated at the beginning and the end of the intervention program, and three months after the investigation by the scores in; (1) oral self-care (2) oral condition, i.e., decayed teeth, community periodontal index (CPI), deposits of plaque and dental calculus, (3) oral function such as RSST, oral diadochokinesis, (4) QOL (SF-8 v2™, and GOHAI), and (5) cognitive function (MMSE-J). Informed consent was obtained fro...