Home‐care aides’ self‐perception of oral health‐care provision competency for community‐dwelling older people

Objectives To investigate the circumstances in which home‐care aides (HAs) provide oral health care to homebound patients and to examine the degree of comfort and knowledge that HAs have regarding their own skills in providing oral health care. Methods Seven home‐care facilities in central Taiwan consented to participate in this cross‐sectional study. The participants were selected through convenience sampling. A total of 312 effective responses were obtained (the effective response rate was 64.0%). SPSS, version 17, was used to perform statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results Oral health‐care work had a minimal impact on the psychological burden of the HAs. However, factors affecting the self‐perception of the HAs regarding their competency in oral health‐care provision included ‘whether oral health care is a part of home care’ (β = −0.195, P = 0.006), ‘whether patients had difficulty chewing’ (β = −0.178, P = 0.001), ‘vomiting during oral health care’ (β = 0.133, P = 0.001), ‘having HA certification’ (β = 0.120, P = 0.030), ‘whether premeal oral exercises were performed’ (β = 0.141, P = 0.012), ‘finger biting during the provision of oral care’ (β = −0.115, P = 0.039) and ‘time constraints for provision of care’ (β = 0.143, P = 0.042). Conclusions Enhancing HAs’ self‐perception of their competency in oral health‐care provision can help develop in‐service training courses focused on oral health care for older adults, thereby further strengthening HAs’ competency in oral health‐care provision.