Oral health assessment of older adults living in long-term care facilities by non-dental professionals: a systematic review protocol of instruments

Abstract

IntroductionRegular oral health assessment among older adults living in long-term care facilities (LTCF) can improve their oral health. Different instruments have been developed and used to evaluate the oral health of institutionalised older people by non-dental professionals. These instruments must demonstrate adequate measurement properties. This systematic review aims to examine the studies describing the instruments employed to assess the oral health of older adults living in LTCF by non-dental professionals. The study will also evaluate the measurement properties of such instruments using the checklist proposed by the Consensus-based Standards to select health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN).Methods and analysisStudies describing the development of instruments for assessing oral health of institutionalised older adults by non-dental professionals will be included. Studies assessing at least one measurement property (validity, reliability or responsiveness) will be also considered. Electronic searches will be conducted on MEDLINE (PubMed, Ovid), Embase, Web of Science, Scopus and LILACS databases. Two independent reviewers will select the studies and will extract data concerning the characteristics of the research and the instrument. The measurement properties will be evaluated using the COSMIN checklist. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach will be used to grade the quality (or certainty) of evidence and strength of recommendations.Ethics and disseminationNo ethical approval is required. The results will be submitted for publication to a peer-review journal and presented at relevant conferences.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020191479.

A systematic review of measurement instruments for oral health assessment of older adults in long‐term care facilities by nondental professionals

“…This systematic review was developed and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) 11 and COSMIN checklist for systematic reviews 12 . The protocol of this systematic review was registered on the PROSPERO database (Ref: CRD42020191479) and previously described 13 …”

“…A third reviewer was consulted in case of disagreements. Detailed information on the methods is found in other publications 13 …”

“…The quality of evidence can be subsequently downgraded by one or two levels per factor to moderate, low or very low evidence if there is imprecision (low sample size) or serious or very serious risk of bias, inconsistency, indirectness. The quality of evidence can even be downgraded by three levels when the evidence is based on only one inadequate study (extremely serious risk of bias) 13,14 …”

“…12 The protocol of this systematic review was registered on the PROSPERO database (Ref: CRD42020191479) and previously described. 13 The review questions were What instruments have been developed and tested to assess the oral health of older adults living in LTCF by nondental professionals, and Do these instruments present acceptable measurement properties?…”

“…The quality of evidence can even be downgraded by three levels when the evidence is based on only one inadequate study (extremely serious risk of bias). 13,14…”