Attitudes to oral care among caregivers in Japanese nursing homes.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to investigate oral care practice and awareness of it among caregivers in Japanese nursing homes.


METHODS
Caregivers were surveyed by means of a self-administered questionnaire designed to elicit the following information: awareness of oral care, its importance, the burden involved in oral care, and systematization of oral care.


RESULTS
The results showed that most caregivers are adequately informed of the importance of oral care, but are inadequately educated in oral care and have little training in systematic oral care.


CONCLUSIONS
The importance of providing appropriate and systematic oral care training must be stressed among caregivers along with the need to develop equipment to simplify and support oral care.
Sumi
Y
Y
Department of Dental Surgery, National Chubu Hospital, Obu City, Japan. yasusumi@chubu-nh.go.jp
Nakamura
Y
Y
Nagaosa
S
S
Michiwaki
Y
Y
Nagaya
M
M
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D017028:Caregivers / Q000193:education; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes; D009909:Oral Health; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires