The effect of oral care training given to patients with stroke on oral health quality of life and self-efficiency level

This study was conducted as a single-group pretest-posttest intervention study to determine the effect of oral care education given to stroke patients on the patient's oral health quality of life and self-efficacy level. Ethics committee approval and institutional permission were obtained to conduct the study. The study was conducted with 90 stroke patients in Ankara Health Sciences University Gaziler Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Training and Research Hospital between 15 July 2021 and 01 January 2022. In data collection, the Patient Information Form, the Oral Health Assessment Form, the Oral Health Impact Scale (OHIP-14), the Oral and Dental Health-Related Quality of Life-UK Scale (OHRQol-UK) and the Oral Care Self-Efficacy Belief Scale sub-dimension Tooth Brushing Self-Efficacy is used. A pre-test was applied to the patients, oral care training was given, the patients were followed up for a month, and the patients were given a post-test. Number, frequency, percentage, mean and Paired simple t test were used to evaluate the data. 28.9% of the patients stated that they performed oral care 3 times a day before having a stroke, while 43.3% of them stated that they started to do oral care once a day after the diagnosis of stroke. While the pre-test score average of the stroke patients' oral health assessment form was 9.00±1.90, the post-test mean score was 6.48±1.44, and the difference was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). While the mean OHIP-14 pre-test score of stroke patients was 7.07±6.39, the post-test mean score was 6.81±3.10, and the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05). While the mean OHRQol-UK pre-test score of stroke patients was 43.29±7.72, the post-test mean score was 53.77±8.36, and the difference was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). While the mean score of the pre-test for brushing self-efficacy of stroke patients was 11.31±6.31, the mean score of the post-test was 17.38±5.31, and the difference was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). In line with these results, it was determined that there was a significant decrease in the oral health assessment form score of stroke patients after education. In addition, it was determined that there was a significant increase in OHRQol-UK score and tooth brushing self-efficacy score. It is recommended that the oral evaluation of stroke patients be carried out at regular intervals and that oral care education should be given to the patients. 2023, 118 pages KEYWORDS: Oral Care, Oral Health, Stroke, Self-Efficacy, Quality of Life