Evaluate five different diagnostic tests for dry mouth assessment in geriatric residents in long-term institutions in Taiwan

Table 1 The Characteristics of the residents

Variable	Number of residents (Percentage)	Correlation coefficient between oral moisture and each variable
Gender
Male	250 (44.6)	−0.03
Female	310 (55.4)
Education
Illiterate	223 (39.8)	−0.07
Elementary school	220 (39.3)
Junior high school	58 (10.4)
High school	43 (7.7)
College degree	16 (2.9)
Type of LTC institutions
LTC institutions	15 (2.7)	−0.02
Residential Care Home	362 (64.6)
Nursing home	183 (32.7)
Marital status
No spouse	71 (12.7)	0.03
Marital status	131 (23.4)
Divorced	51 (9.1)
Widowed / separated	307 (54.8)
Texture of food intake
Soft foods^a	297 (53.0)
Finely chopped foods^b	133 (23.8)	−0.09^*
Semi-liquid diets^c	96 (17.1)
Full liquid diets^d	34 (6.1)
Variable	Means (95% CI)	Correlation coefficient between oral moisture and each variable
Average length of LTC stay (months)	45.78 (42.57–48.99)	0.02
Number of diseases experienced	2.08 (1.96–2.20)	0.06
Height (cm)	157.57 (156.80–158.34)	0.02
Body weight (kg)	56.95 (56.05–57.84)	0.06
Body Mass Index (BMI)	22.91 (22.60–23.24)	0.06
Daily water intake (mL)	899.15 (851.15–947.17)	0.03
Activities of daily living scale (ADL)	67.71 (65.28–70.14)	0.14^**

Note: ^a soft foods: for older adults with poor chewing ability but normal swallowing function. ^bfinely chopped foods: solid food is processed through methods such as mincing and grinding to produce food that can be swallowed without chewing. ^c semi-liquid foods:solid food is processed through methods such as mincing and grinding, after which it is added to porridge, soup, and drink to that can be swallowed with or without a little chewing. ^d fully liquid foods: semiliquid food is completely liquidized in a juicer. cm: centimeter. kg kilograms, BMI Body mass index, mL milliliter, ADL Activities of daily living, CI confidence interval. * significant at p < 0.05; ** significant at p < 0.01. N = 560

ISSN: 1472-6831