This study was to investigate the association between functional dentition with inadequate calorie intake and underweight in elderly people living in “Pondok” in Kelantan. A cross-sectional study participated by 369 elderly people was carried out. A simple random sampling method was utilized for the selection of the subjects. Subjects were interviewed using a structured form to collect information about subjects’ demographic background and self-reported health status. The 24-hour recall method was used to provide information on the subject’s exact food intake during the previous 24 hours. Body mass index was calculated from subjects’ weight and height, followed by oral assessment. The “Nutrical Software” was used for nutrient calculation, followed by SPSS version 11.5 for data analysis. The response rate was 95.6%. Majority of the respondents were female (92.4%). The percentage of subjects who had inadequate calorie intake and underweight was 71.0% and 25.7% respectively. The percentage of edentulism was 81.0%. The proportion of elderly with compromised functional dentition was 48.2% and majority was edentate elderly without wearing any complete dentures or wearing defective dentures, 23.6% and 56.2% respectively, while 20.2% was dentate elderly. The odds of having inadequate calorie intake and getting underweight among elderly with a compromised functional dentition was 3.7 times and 42.0 times respectively, compared to elderly with a non-compromised functional dentition. There was a significant association between inadequate calorie intake and underweight with functional dentition among elderly living in “Pondok” in Kelantan.
Limited information is available about the oral health of elderly people living in “Pondok” in Kelantan. This study aimed to assess the dentition status of elderly population staying in Islamic Religious Community Setup, “Pondok” in Kelantan. A cross sectional study involving 369 elderly people was carried out. A simple random sampling method was utilized for the selection of the subjects. Oral examination was done to assess the dentition status and data was analyzed using SPSS 11.5 version. The response rate was 95.6%. Majority of the subjects were edentulous (81.0%). The mean number of natural teeth, functional natural teeth, decayed teeth (D), missing teeth (M) and teeth indicated for extraction (X) were 3.22 (SD 7.54), 2.75 (SD 6.70), 0.06 (SD 0.48), 28.80 (SD 7.51) and 0.41 (SD 1.60) respectively. Among 70 dentate subjects, the mean number of natural teeth, functional natural teeth, occluding pair of functional natural teeth, decayed teeth (D), missing teeth (M), teeth indicated for extraction (X) and DMFX(T) index were 17.1 (SD 8.00), 14.5 (SD 8.11), 6.3 (SD 4.22), 0.3 (SD 1.06), 15.1 (SD 8.20), 2.2 (SD 3.14) and 17.6 (SD 8.08) respectively. There was no teeth had been filled (F). The proportion of subjects having minimum 20 functional natural teeth was 7.3%. The above results indicate that dental caries status of elderly people living in “Pondok” in Kelantan was unsatisfactory with high percentage of edentulism, contributing to the high value of the mean DMFX(T) index, 29.3 (SD 6.63).
Involvement of oral health educators among non-health professionals in oral health promotion is important in the prevention of oral diseases. This study was carried out to compare the level of oral health knowledge among pre-school teachers before and after oral health seminar. Pre-test data was collected by distributing questionnaire to pre-school teachers in Pasir Mas, who attended the seminar on "Oral Health" (n=33) and they were required to fill anonymously before the seminar started. The questions consisted of information on general background, perceived oral health status, oral health knowledge and the environment where they work. After two weeks, post-test data was collected using the same structured questionnaire and identification code was used to match the pre and post data. SPSS 11.5 was use for statistical analysis. Two out of 33 eligible preschool teachers were considered non-respondents due to absenteeism during the post-test data collection. The response rate was 94.0% (n = 31). The study shows a significant improvement in oral health knowledge among pre-school teachers in Pasir Mas, after seminar (p < 0.001) as compared to controls. Thus, we can conclude that the oral health programme (seminar) appeared effective at influencing oral health educator's knowledge towards oral health.