| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MATSUO Kouichi KYUSHU UNIVERSITY,Faculty of Dentistry, ASSIST., 歯学部, 助手 (30229421)
MOROI Hiroko KYUSHU UNIVERSITY,Faculty of Dentistry, ASSIST., 歯学部, 助手 (90192286)
TERADA Yoshihiro KYUSHU UNIVERSITY,Faculty of Dentistry, PROF., 歯学部, 教授 (30038898)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000)
Fiscal Year 1995: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Fiscal Year 1994: ¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Physical and mental rehabilitation on elderly disabled patients has been performed in various institutions and proved to be effective in these patients. Although masticatory function is one of the major functions in living, rehabilitation on reduced or impaired masticatory function has not been clarified yet. This study was carried out to examine thy rehabilitation effect of improved masticatory function on general conditions in elderly patients who were confined to bed or those with dementia. In the previous report, treatments were made to improve the oral condition in 12 elderly inpatients, who were confined to bed. Then their general and oral conditions were followed up for one to four years. As the result, the more the activity of daily living (ADL) decreased, or the more the mental scores in dementia test reduced, the more denture and oral condition were contaminated (Okimoto, et al, 1993).
In addition, 86 elderly people in nursing home and 123 elderly inpatients (including confined-to-bed patients and dementia patients) were studied in order to evaluate the general and masticatory functions (masticatory activity) in elderly patients. The evaluation parameters included the number of remaining teeth, evaluation on denture in use, food which can be chewed, bite force reflecting indirectly feedback to the nerve system, and contamination of denture and oral conditions.ADL and the maximum grip strength were also evaluated. Hasegawa mental test and Hamamatsu dementia test (sorting Japanese alphabets) were used to compare the mental conditions between the groups.
In condition, the maximum bite force, the number of remaining teeth, food to be chewable, oral maintenance and ADL in the nursing home group were significantly favorable than those in elderly inpatient group. The mental conditions in the nursing home residents were less reduced than in the inpatients group. These suggest that the masticatory activity should be reflected in general conditions.
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