Author(s)

Yumi Kuwamura¹, Masuko Sumikawa², Tetsuya Tanioka¹, Toshihiko Nagata³, Eijiro Sakamoto³, Hiromi Murata⁴, Munehide Matsuhisa⁵, Ken-ichi Aihara⁶, Daisuke Hinode⁷, Hirokazu Uemura⁸, Hirokazu Ito¹, Yuko Yasuhara¹, Rozzano Locsin¹

¹Department of Nursing, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.
²Sapporo Medical University School of Health Sciences, Hokkaido, Japan.
³Department of Periodontology and Endodontology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.
⁴Former Tokushima University Hospital, Tokushima, Japan.
⁵Diabetes Therapeutics and Research Center, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan.
⁶Department of Community Medicine for Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.
⁷Department of Hygiene and Oral Health Science, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.
⁸Department of Preventive Medicine, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.

Although some studies had suggested a bidirectional relationship between diabetes and periodontal disease, there were no appropriate tools for nurses to evaluate oral status and oral health behaviors in patients with diabetes. Therefore, the Diabetes Oral Health Assessment Tool (DiO-HAT ?) was developed with items contributed by health care professionals (diabetologists, periodontal specialists, a preventive dentist, a Certified Nurse in Diabetes Nursing, a national registered dietitian, registered nurses, a dental hygienist, and nursing researchers) who were involved in the medical care of patients with diabetes. Subsequently, a survey of 700 Diabetes Nurse Specialists (DNS) was conducted to determine their score of recognition and implementation of the DiOHAT ?, however, 304 participants (43.4%) responded. Constructive concept validation and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for all assessment items were 0.931, indicating high reliability: Factor 1, Patient’s oral health status (α = 0.831); Factor 2, Implementation of oral health behaviors (α = 0.890); Factor 3, Information transmission regarding dental visits (α = 0.862); and Factor 4, Perceptions and knowledge of oral health behaviors (α = 0.793). Although the mean score of recognition of DiOHAT ? was 3.5 ± 0.4 points, the mean value of the implementation score was 1.5 ± 0.5 points (obtained using a 4-grade scale). The implementation scores were significantly lower than the recognition scores for all items (p < 0.001). The findings suggested that the DNS were not inclined to implement all items of DiOHAT ?, despite recognizing their importance.

Diabetes, Oral Health Behavior, Oral Status, Nursing Assessment, Diabetes Nurse Specialist

Kuwamura, Y. , Sumikawa, M. , Tanioka, T. , Nagata, T. , Sakamoto, E. , Murata, H. , Matsuhisa, M. , Aihara, K. , Hinode, D. , Uemura, H. , Ito, H. , Yasuhara, Y. and Locsin, R. (2015) Development of the Diabetes Oral Health Assessment Tool © for Nurses. Health, 7, 1710-1720. doi: 10.4236/health.2015.712186.