General health, wellbeing and oral health of patients older than 75 years attending health assessments
Dominic Keuskamp A B , Najith Amarasena A , Madhan Balasubramanian A and David S. Brennan A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, Adelaide Dental School, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: dominic.keuskamp@adelaide.edu.au
Australian Journal of Primary Health 24(2) 177-182 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY17060
Submitted: 4 May 2017 Accepted: 29 October 2017 Published: 17 January 2018
Abstract
Annual health assessments by general practices for community-dwelling people aged 75 years and over are important for the early intervention and monitoring of chronic health conditions, including oral disease. Uptake of the health assessment to date has been poor, and little is known of the general and oral health profile of patients. Older patients attending health assessments at general practices in South Australia were sampled for this study. Data on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and patients’ general and oral health, were collected by mailed questionnaire from 459 respondents. By comparison with national estimates, patients attending health assessments fared worse in many of the measures, such as self-rated general health, quality of life and the prevalence of most chronic conditions, as well as their socioeconomic circumstances. Also identified were a high degree of nutritional risk and clear need for oral health treatment, with poor self-rated oral health being three-fold higher than the national age-eligible population. Patients attending health assessments would likely benefit from nutritional screening (by a validated tool) and specific assessment of their oral health and dentition, supported by appropriate referral or intervention.
Additional keywords: dental care, nutritional risk, older adults, self-rated health.
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