Efficacy of Oral Care in Elderly Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

People with schizophrenia exhibit a wide range of social disabilities. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether oral care improved the oral condition and salivary stress markers in elderly patients with schizophrenia.
Twenty elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia (10 men and 10 women, mean age 69.2 years) in Sapporo Hanazono Hospital, who provided written informed consent, were included in this study. A weekly oral care intervention was performed on these subjects for 16 weeks.
There were significant improvement in the levels of oral condition in the subjects after the oral care intervention for 16 weeks. Furthermore, there was a significant decrease in the levels of salivary amylase after oral health care intervention.
This study suggests that receiving adequate oral care improved the oral condition in elderly patients with schizophrenia.