LifE Style, Nutrition and Oral Health in Care Givers (LENTO)

The LENTO study sample includes the caregivers and their clients living in eastern Finland. The aims of this study are to study the nutritional status, oral health, coping, functional capacity and quality of life to find out how individual nutrition and oral health counseling received for caregivers affect on the nutritional status and oral health of caregivers and their clients develop an operating model to maintain good nutrition and oral health.

In Finland, the aim is to reduce the institutional care of older people and caring them in their own homes. The goal of shifting the focus of services to open services is difficult to implement if the health of the caregivers is inadequate. In order to achieve this goal, it is important to influence the health and performance of caregivers. Information is needed to support this, among others, about how the nutrition and oral health of caregivers can be promoted and to what extent this affects the performance and quality of life of their clients. A randomly of 220 caregivers over 65 years old and their clients is selected for this study. The caregivers are randomized to either treatment or control groups. At the beginning of the study is estimated the nutritional status and oral health of the caregivers. Based on the results, the nutritionist and dental hygienist give individual advice to optimize the nutrition and oral health of the caregivers in the intervention group. After six months, the same measurements are made as at the beginning of the study. Monitoring measurements will be made one year after the start of the intervention. The results of this project provide information on the health, well-being, and ability to the function of the caregivers. Based on the results, is developed an operating model that is intended to be wide as use as possible. Improving the nutrition and oral health of caregivers has a significant impact on their own and their clients health and well-being as well as the long-term care costs presumably.

Nutrition Disorders in Old Age, Caries,Dental, Dentures, Oral Mucositis, Tooth Diseases, Plaque, Dental, Gingival Diseases

On the basis of a blood test, Mini Nutritional Assessment, food diary and nutritional anamnesis, the nutritionist developed a plan for individualised nutritional care and discussed with the caregivers. If the caregivers seemed unable to increase the energy and/or protein of their diet, daily complementary dietary drinks were recommended to them. The participants were re-examined six months after the baseline interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions.

The control group has the same examinations as the intervention group, they do not get dietary counseling.

After the dental hygienist interview and oral health examination, the caregivers in need were targeted for oral health intervention. The intervention included individualised instructions on either dental hygiene, denture hygiene, cleaning of the oral mucosa or for dry mouth. The participants were re-examined six months after the baseline interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions.

The control group has the same examinations as the intervention group, they do not get oral health counseling.

Inclusion Criteria: caregivers who have a caregiver´s contract valid on 1 January 2019 care recipients living at home Exclusion Criteria: in terminal care

Koponen S, Nykanen I, Savela RM, Valimaki T, Suominen AL, Schwab U. Individually tailored nutritional guidance improved dietary intake of older family caregivers: a randomized controlled trial. Eur J Nutr. 2022 Oct;61(7):3585-3596. doi: 10.1007/s00394-022-02908-w. Epub 2022 May 27.

Nykanen I, Valimaki T, Suominen L, Schwab U. Optimizing nutrition and oral health for caregivers-intervention protocol. Trials. 2021 Sep 15;22(1):625. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05589-8.