Introduction: Oral healthcare in nursing homes is less than optimal, with severe consequences for residents' health and quality of life. To provide the best possible oral healthcare to nursing home residents, care providers need strategies that have been proven to be effective. Strategies can either encourage and motivate residents to perform oral healthcare themselves or can prevent or overcome responsive behaviours from residents when care providers assist with oral healthcare. This systematic review aims to identify studies that evaluate the effectiveness of such strategies and to synthesise their evidence.
Methods and analysis: We will conduct a comprehensive search in the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, Evidence Based Reviews--Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL and Web of Science for quantitative intervention studies that assess the effectiveness of eligible strategies. 2 reviewers will independently screen titles, abstracts and retrieved full texts for eligibility. In addition, contents of key journals, publications of key authors and reference lists of all studies included will be searched by hand and screened by 2 reviewers. Discrepancies at any stage of the review process will be resolved by consensus. Data extraction will be performed by 1 research team member and checked by a second team member. 2 reviewers will independently assess methodological quality of studies included using 3 validated checklists appropriate for different research designs. We will present a narrative synthesis of study results.
Ethics and dissemination: We did not seek ethics approval for this study, as we will not collect primary data and data from studies included cannot be linked to individuals or organisations. We will publish findings of this review in a peer-reviewed paper and present them at an international peer-reviewed conference.
Trial registration number: CRD42015026439.
Keywords: Nursing Homes; Oral Health Care; Responsive Behaviours.
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