Modified diabetes oral health assessment tool （M‐DiOHATⓒ） for nurses and their association with efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies in patients with diabetes

Background : Bidirectional relationships exist between diabetes and periodontal disease. Fostering timely oral health assessments of patients with diabetes, the modified diabetes oral health assessment tool (M-DiOHATⓒ) for nurses was studied. The DiOHATⓒ has four factors, namely oral health conditions, oral hygiene behaviors, perception and knowledge, and health record sharing. It was modified as the M-DiOHATⓒ scale. To change people's health behaviors, “efficacy beliefs" and “outcome expectancies" are important. However, no studies have been reported that addressed efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancies of oral health conditions and behaviors of patients with diabetes.
Objective : To clarify the oral health conditions and behaviors of patients with diabetes using the M-DiOHATⓒ, and to describe their associations with the Self-Efficacy Scale for Self-Care (SESS)/the Outcome Expectancy Scale for Self-Care (OESS).
Methods : Twenty-eight patients with diabetes participated in the study. Their personal characteristics were determined from the items of self-efficacy for brushing of the teeth (SE-B), self-efficacy for dental consultations (SE-DC), OESS that are comprised of three factors, namely, the social outcome expectancy (OE-Social), oral outcome expectancy (OE-Oral), and self-evaluative outcome expectancy (OE-Self), and the M-DiOHATⓒ.
Results : Forty-three percent of patients had retained their expected number of present teeth, and 68% of them had dental problems. The scores of health record sharing were low, and patients who were under 65 years old had fewer “expected number of present teeth," and lower SE-B/oral health conditions scores than those patients aged over 65 years. The scores of oral hygiene behaviors were significantly correlated with the SE-B scores, SE-DC, OE-Oral, and OE-Self. However, the oral health conditions showed no correlation with SE-B, SE-DC, OESS.
Conclusion : The findings suggest that nursing interventions to promote SE-B, SE-DC, and OESS could be effective in enhancing patients' oral hygiene behaviors. However, severity of patients' periodontal disease require different types of dental self-efficacy procedures.