Objective: This study aimed to measure the nutritional intake of long-term care residents 65 years and older, after implementing a daily oral hygiene program to incorporate current literature with the esteem in determining the effectiveness of oral hygiene before meals. Method: An ABAB withdrawal single case research design was used. Ten participants from a long-term care facility were asked to allow a speech-language pathologist to brush their teeth two times per day before a meal. PI measured meal weight before and after intake. Results: All participants demonstrated stable baselines and therapeutic treatment effects. Overall, 80% of participants experienced a positive, accelerating data trend during the initial invention phase. Upon withdrawal of the intervention, 90% of the participants presented with a decelerating data trend. Once the intervention was reinstated, 100% of participants demonstrated in an accelerating data trend. The median for the percentage of non-overlapping data for A2 to B2 phases including all participants was 85%, which indicated a significant increase in the amount of food intake once the oral hygiene program was reinstated. The OHAT was used to measure oral hygiene levels before and after implementing a daily oral hygiene program, and each participant showed improvement. Conclusion: These results support literature recommendations for long-term care facilities to implement an oral hygiene program into daily functional task procedures to increase oral nutritional intake.
Keywords: oral hygiene, dysphagia, aspiration, meal intake, long-term care resident
