SmartJournal for Improved Oral Care in Nursing Homes

INTRODUCTION Poor oral health is common in frail and care-dependent older adults and includes tooth loss, poor oral hygiene, high prevalence of dental caries and periodontal disease, defective dental prostheses, hyposalivation and various oral lesions caused by misfitting dentures and/or precancerous or cancerous states. Alarmingly, oral health is shown to be the most neglected area in Norwegian nursing homes and oral healthcare is the first task to be downgraded due to lack of resources. Neglect of oral health, resulting in poor oral hygiene, may cause infections and inflammation both locally and systemically. Oral infections have been associated with systemic conditions such as atherosclerosis, diabetes and aspiration pneumonia. Moreover, chewing difficulties as a result of poor dental status have been associated with altered dietary habits, malnutrition and cognitive decline. According to the World Health Organization, this is a worldwide problem as oral health is an often neglected area of healthy ageing. A few decades ago, most older adults were denture wearers. Today, an increasing number of elderly keep their natural teeth - often in combination with complex and expensive fixed and/or removable prosthesis. While dentures are easy to manage, the more complex prosthetic devices can represent a challenge with regard to handling and cleaning. Thus, care-dependent elderly have to rely on caregivers to maintain satisfactory oral health. Research from Sweden and Denmark has shown that about 80% of nursing home residents need assistance with daily oral hygiene practices. Thus, it is disturbing that healthcare professionals report numerous barriers when it comes to provision of adequate oral care. The most frequently reported barriers are lack of knowledge and skills and care resistant behaviors (CRB), in particular among patients suffering from dementia. Research has indicated that more than 50% of Norwegian nursing home residents with dementia refuse oral care assistance. In cases of frequent CRB, daily oral care may be postponed repeatedly, resulting in poor oral hygiene and increased risk of oral and systemic infections. Other reported barriers include lack of adequate oral care routines, lack of systems for documentation of issues related to oral health, a high workload and unclear responsibilities. To overcome the reported barriers for provision of adequate oral care in the elderly, an interactive and easy-to-use digital tool named SmartJournal has been developed to assist health personnel in preserving nursing home residents' oral health. SmartJournal, which is an application for tablet, is created by researchers at the Oral Health Centre of Expertise in Rogaland, Norway, in close collaboration with dental professionals, nursing home caregivers and innovative research- and development environments. The objectives of the current research are: to assess 1) the effectiveness of SmartJournal in enhancing nursing home caregivers' capability, opportunity, motivation and routines related to oral care, 2) whether SmartJournal usage may result in improved oral health for nursing home residents and 3) whether SmartJournal usage may result in changes in the documentation of oral health related issues in patient journals. METHODS Design and procedures A pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial (C-RCT) will be employed to assess effects of SmartJournal usage as specified in the study objectives. Nursing homes located in Rogaland, Norway, will be recruited and randomly assigned to an intervention group and a control group. Nursing homes in the intervention group will be provided with tablets containing SmartJournal, while nursing homes in the control group will continue with existing oral care routines. The intervention will last for 12 weeks. Following recruitment of participants and baseline measurements, nursing homes in the intervention group will be provided with SmartJournal toolboxes and packages with oral hygiene equipment, while nursing homes in the control group will receive oral hygiene equipment packages only. Training, follow-up and technical support for SmartJournal users will be provided by project staff employed at the Oral Health Centre of Expertise Rogaland. Measurements Effects of SmartJournal usage on caregivers' capability, opportunity, motivation and routines related to oral healthcare and handling of CRB will be measured by a survey questionnaire. Caregivers in both the intervention- and the control group will be asked to fill out the survey questionnaire three times: before the intervention (baseline), immediately after the intervention (at 3 months) and 6 months after the intervention (at 9 months). Effects of SmartJournal usage on nursing home residents' oral health will be assessed using the mucosal-plaque score (MPS) as a primary outcome measure. Residents in both the intervention- and the control group will have an assessment of MPS at three times: at baseline, 3 months and 9 months. MPS assessments will be performed by dental professionals employed at the Oral Health Center of Expertise Rogaland, Norway. Calibration will be undertaken to ensure reliability of the clinical measurements. Effects of SmartJournal usage on documentation of oral health related issues in patient journals will be measured both quantitatively (i.e., frequency of documentation) and qualitatively (i.e., qualitative assessment of documentation) at three times throughout the project period: at baseline, 3 months and 9 months. Additional journal data shown to be associated with oral health will also be retrieved and used to describe the study sample and to be included as covariates in statistical analyses. These data include socio-demographics, medical conditions and prescribed medication. Power and sample size Estimation of sample size is based on previous research using MPS as a primary outcome measure. We assume an alpha of 0.5, a power of 80% and a 33% drop-out rate due to the residents' frail condition and a median resident time of two years. A medical statistician has been consulted to further adapt the calculations to the present study setting (taking into account the number of eligible nursing homes and residents in Rogaland), recommending the inclusion of 12 nursing homes each with 30 residents opted for oral health assessments. Thus, a total of 360 residents will be included for oral health assessments, 180 in the intervention and control group, respectively. All eligible caregivers in the included nursing homes will be invited to take part in the survey. Data analyses The statistical software package SPSS (IBM) will be used for analyses of quantitative data such as survey data, MPS data and frequency data from patient journals. The analyses will include descriptive statistics and statistical techniques to look for changes and differences in the study variables within and between the intervention- and the control group throughout the project period (e.g., t-tests and analysis of variance tests). We hypothesize that SmartJournal usage will lead to favorable changes in variable scores. In caregivers: improved capability, opportunity, motivation and routines related to oral care (survey data). In residents: improved oral health as measured by MPS. In patient journals: enhanced reporting of oral health related issues. Additionally, regression analysis will be employed to investigate associations between study variables while adjusting for potential covariates. NVivo (Alfasoft) will be used to analyze qualitative data from patient journals.