title: Oral cancer screening: practices, knowledge, and opinions of dentists working in Ohio nursing homes.
abstract: The state of oral health of nursing homes residents is less than satisfactory. The oral health care in nursing homes is also deficient, therefore it is likely that oral cancer (OC) screening of residents will be inadequate. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine OC screening practices, knowledge, and opinions of dentists working in nursing homes throughout Ohio. A 28-item pretested questionnaire was mailed to 75 dentists who were serving 606 nursing homes. The response rate was 49%. The main outcome measures of interest included: OC screening practices of the Ohio dentists, their knowledge of OC detection, and their opinions regarding OC screening competency. Age was found to be a significant factor, with younger dentists being more likely to have higher knowledge scores after adjusting for all other covariates.
authors.affiliation: Research Fellow in the Prevention Research Educational Postdoctoral Training Program (NIH/NCI R25T CA090355), Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA. saa6@case.edu
authors.forename: Suparna A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mahalaha
authors.forename: Vinay K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Cheruvu
authors.forename: Kathleen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Smyth
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016321:Dental Care for Aged / Q000379:methods*; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology*; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000193:education; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009735:Nursing Homes; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires