National and international evaluation of the optimized oral health-related section of the BelRAI and its incorporation in the interRAI Suite of Instruments.

Oral health of care-dependent elderly people is poor due to limited daily oral care and difficult access to dental care. In a previous project, the oral health-related part of the BelRAI was evaluated and optimized. BelRAI (Belgian version of the InterRAI Suite of Instruments) is a set of instruments that evaluates the health and well-being of a care-dependent person and tracks care needs to allow adequate care planning. The oral health-related part refers to the detection by non-dentists of insufficient daily oral care and the need for referral to the dentist. In this project, the effect of this newly developed oral assessment on oral care, oral health and general health will be evaluated. This will lead to further fine-tuning and embedding of the oral assessment in the BelRAI. Adaptation of the assessment to the international context, in collaboration with international partners, will make international validation possible. This project also aims to incorporate the oral assessment within the interRAI Suite of Instruments.

Keywords:Oral health care, care-dependent elders, assessment instrument, concurrent validity, qualitative research, effect evaluation, daily oral care, referral to dentist

Disciplines:Oral medicine and pathology, Social gerontology, Geriatrics, Health promotion and policy, Health information systems of medical informatics