2018 Volume 33 Issue 3 Pages 335-343
Objectives：The association of directorsʼ or office managersʼ interest in oral health management with the levying of additional fees for oral care in long-term care facilities was examined.
Methods：We sent self-administered questionnaires to 1,806 long-term care facilities. As a proxy of implementation of oral care, the presence of an additional fee in public insurance for oral care in long-term care facilities was used as the dependent variable. Directorsʼ or office managersʼ interest in oral health management was used as the independent variable. Number of residents, nursing care level, dentistry services offered, presence of a dental professional, presence of an oral care manual, participation and enforcement of training on oral care, dental examinations, and access to dental care were entered as covariates. Poisson regression was used to estimate the prevalence ratio（PR）and 95％ confidence interval（95％CI）.
Results：Respectively 67.4％ and 67.7％ of the facilities obtained an additional fee for oral care when the director or office manager had an interest in oral health management. The multivariate adjusted PR for directorsʼ and managersʼ interest in oral health management when an additional fee was levied for oral care were 1.32（95％CI：1.07～1.63）and 1.29（95％CI：1.08～1.53）, respectively.
Conclusion：Our results demonstrated that, in facilities that offered dentistry services, employed a dental hygienist, and conducted regular dental checkups, an additional fee was levied for dental services when the facility director or office manager had an interest in oral health management. Directorsʼ or office managersʼ understanding of the importance of oral health management seems to be especially important for levying an additional fee for oral care in long-term care facilities.
