The increasing average life expectancy worldwide results in an elderly population with significant health care needs. However, dental care is often not a focus of care. It is well known that oral and overall health are directly related. Therefore, the Mini Dental Assessment (MDA) was developed to provide a simple analysis of oral health status, although it is currently only available in paper form, with all associated drawbacks, from illegible writing to the inability to quickly search the collected forms. This study aimed to develop a digital application (app) for mobile devices that can overcome the problems associated with paper forms. After the digital MDA was developed, its usability was evaluated by nurses, a questionnaire was answered, and it was compared to the analog MDA with patients in a pilot study. The usability of the app (System Usability Scale) was 95.18 ± 4.26, representing a very high usability. Furthermore, this app showed good clinical applicability. The results also showed that the digital MDA was accepted by nurses in their daily routine and was preferred to the analog MDA. A follow-up study with a higher number of subjects is highly recommended.
ZusammenfassungDurch die steigende Lebenserwartung und den damit verbundenen demografischen Wandel sind immer mehr Menschen auf Pflege angewiesen. Um erste Hinweise auf einen möglichen notwendigen zahnärztlichen Behandlungsbedarf zu geben, haben sich im zahnmedizinischen Bereich Kaufunktionstests als Assessmentinstrumente bewährt. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird dem Leser eine Übersicht über vorhandene Kaufunktionstests und deren Durchführung gegeben. An dieser Stelle ist darauf hinzuweisen, dass ein Patient mit Schmerzen unabhängig von einem Kaufunktionstest unverzüglich einer Zahnärztin/einem Zahnarzt vorgestellt werden sollte. Weiterhin ersetzen Kaufunktionstests keine zahnärztlichen Routineuntersuchungen, könnten jedoch auch (zahn-)medizinischen Laien Hinweise darauf geben, ob ein Termin in einer Zahnarztpraxis vereinbart werden sollte oder ein zahnärztliches Konsil notwendig ist.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.