Journal of Disability and Oral Health

cover art

Cover Date:
October 2003
Print ISSN:
1470-8558
Electronic ISSN:
1754-2758
Vol:
4
Issue:
2

Do health care professionals refer housebound people to dental services? Referral behaviours and characteristic factors

Objectives: The objectives were to investigate the referral behaviours of three of the health and social care professions and to identify their characteristics, using a predictive model, for those who had and had not referred their housebound clients for dental care. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Subjects: A convenience sample of all community nurses (CNs), social workers (SWs) and occupational therapists (OTs) in a large community trust that were in regular contact with housebound people. Setting: Homefirst Community Trust, Northern Ireland. Results: The response rate was 61 per cent. The sample rarely referred housebound clients. The OTs were significantly less likely, than the CNs or SWs, to have made dental health referrals. A Professional Dental Assessment Scale (PDAS) was developed. Logistic regression analysis identified four factors characteristic of respondents who had referred clients to a community dentist. These were: feeling confident to refer (p<0.001), knowing the name of the nearest community dentist (p=0.01), encountering the Community Dental Service through work (p<0.05) and assessing new clientsÂ’ dental health (PDAS) (p<0.001). A canonical discriminant analysis characterised the CNs by their higher PDAS scores, the SWs by greater confidence to refer and the OTs by lower PDAS scores and lesser confidence to refer. Conclusions: These three health care professionals differ in their referral behaviours, and characteristics suggesting the need for tailored in-service training. Key words: Referral, housebound, oral care, primary care

Article Price
£15.00
Institution Article Price
£15.00
Page Start
51
Page End
57
Authors
Ruth Freeman, Martin Smith

Articles from this issue

  • Title
  • Pg. Start
  • Pg. End

  1. Editorial
  2. 50
  3. 50

  1. Do health care professionals refer housebound people to dental services? Referral behaviours and characteristic factors
  2. 51
  3. 57

  1. Incidence of dental caries in children and young adults with Down syndrome in Kuwait
  2. 58
  3. 63

  1. Perceived dental needs and experiences of preventive dental care of patients attending a paediatric cardiology clinic
  2. 64
  3. 68

  1. The oral and dental health of children in special national schools in the Eastern Regional Health Authority Area, Ireland 1999/2000
  2. 69
  3. 76

  1. Short Communication - The impact of childhood disability and chronic illness upon siblings
  2. 77
  3. 78

  1. An investigation into the dental health of children attending two special day schools in South Warwickshire
  2. 79
  3. 84

  1. Atypical facial pain in a patient with Moebius syndrome
  2. 85
  3. 88

  1. BSDH News
  2. 89
  3. 102

  1. British Society for Disability and Oral Health European Year of Disability Special Award – Primary Care Setting
  2. 104
  3. 104

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