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Exploring the views of relatives of frail elderly patients about participating in a geriatric dentistry program
Author(s) -
Ardenghi Diego Machado,
Wyatt Chris
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
special care in dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.328
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1754-4505
pISSN - 0275-1879
DOI - 10.1111/scd.12220
Subject(s) - medicine , thematic analysis , geriatric dentistry , coding (social sciences) , family medicine , dental care , health care , population , private practice , affect (linguistics) , oral health , qualitative research , gerontology , nursing , psychology , social science , statistics , mathematics , environmental health , communication , sociology , economics , economic growth
Elderly residents of long‐term care facilities (LTC) have difficulty accessing dental services. Aiming to improve access for this population, the Geriatric Dental Program (GDP) was established by UBC Faculty of Dentistry in 2002. Within the GDP, elderly people receive fee‐for‐service dental care. The objective of this research was to explore whether accessing these services had an impact on the lives of the patients’ relatives. Data was collected through semi‐structured, face‐to‐face, audio‐recorded interviews with family members of 12 GDP patients. A criterion sampling method was used to select the interviewed family. Interview transcription and data coding procedures were conducted following Saldaña.[1][Saldaña J, 2009] NVivo software was used to code and organize the transcripts. Data analysis followed a qualitative thematic analysis. Final analysis shows that patient relatives are worried about their relatives’ oral health. They believe that it is difficult to find private dentists with geriatric expertise and to make appointments for their family members in private practice. In addition, they report that the GDP made their life less stressful and relieved the burden of setting up appointments for their relatives. Thus, it is expected that a similar program may positively affect the lives of patient relatives by improving access to dental care services.