Oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices and oral health-related quality of life among stroke inpatients: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Stroke patients have poor oral hygiene, experience oral dysfunction due to disease factors, and have impaired oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). This study aimed to determine the oral health knowledge, attitudes, and practices of stroke inpatients, assess the OHRQoL of these patients, and identify their correlates.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 281 stroke inpatients aged between 22 and 88 years (57.94 ± 10.94) were conveniently selected from three hospitals in Guangzhou, China. OHRQoL was measured among these stroke patients using a Chinese version of the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14). SPSS 26.0 was used for statistical analysis. Mean scores, standard deviations, and frequency distributions were obtained. The Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal‒Wallis H test, Spearman's correlation, and multiple linear regression were used in the analysis.

Results: The mean score of the patients' OHRQoL was 8.37 ± 6.67, with the highest score in the pain or discomfort of the mouth dimension (3.11 ± 2.13) and pain being the most common negative effect (13.5%). In multiple linear regression analysis, significant differences were found between patients only in age (P = 0.008), toothache (P < 0.001), self-rated oral health (P < 0.001), time since last dentist visit (P = 0.037) and reason for not having visited a dentist in the past year (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: The OHRQoL of patients hospitalised with stroke was moderate, and oral conditions still need to be improved. Increasing age, toothache, a longer time since the last dental visit and the reason for not visiting a dentist in the past year had a negative effect on OHRQoL, and better self-rated oral health had a positive effect. Therefore, in clinical work, greater attention should be given to elderly stroke patients, patients with poor oral status and poor oral health behaviours, timely assessment of patients' swallowing function, nutritional function, and self-care ability, and early and targeted oral health interventions and guidance.