Abstract

This study conducted an interview questionnaire survey of 245 old people in some halls for the aged in the Daejeon Metropolitan City from June 1 to 31, 2008. on their attitudes toward and practice items for oral health, resulting in the following findings. 1. In terms of socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects, males females were 48.2% and 51.8% respectively, and in the educational level, no-education, elementary school graduation, middle school graduation, and high school graduation and higher were 27.8%, 33.9%, 26.5%, and 11.8%, respectively, showing the statistically significant difference (p=0.009). 2. In terms of attitudes toward oral health management by oral health care education, regarding questions of use of oral and dental hygiene products (p=0.016), experience in scaling, and whether or not they wear false teeth (p=0.018), a group having received the education rather than a group not having received it showed more positive oral health management attitudes, indicating the statistically significant difference. 3. In daily living inconvenience of acute oral health diseases according to oral health care education, acute oral diseases presents in a group with the education ($2.30{\pm}0.72$) lower than in a group without the education ($2.49{\pm}0.63$), indicating the statistically significant difference(p=0.031). 4. Factors of oral health diseases showed the significant relation with types of health insurance, subjective systemic health status, acute diseases and subjective oral health status (p<0.01), and the explanatory power or the final model was 38%. Accordingly it is thought that there is the indicated need for analyzing and grasping factors related to oral health diseases among the elderly through considering their attitudes toward and practice for oral health, and developing programs of enhancing the oral health of the elderly in order for them to change their attitudes and habits, and also reinforcing oral health care education for the elderly focused on making them perform oral health behaviors in a right way.

Keywords

• factors;
• oral health;
• oral health diseases;
• oral health education

• 구강건강;
• 구강보건교육;
• 구강건강장애;
• 요인;