Implementation issues and barriers for assessing oral health in dependent patients after stroke: A qualitative study

Abstract

Objectives: To explore implementation issues and potential barriers for assessing oral health in dependent post-stroke patients.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposively identified sample of healthcare service providers who work in two National Health Service (NHS) Trusts in the north of England. Interviews were conducted until data saturation was achieved (n = 30). Data were analysed using the constant comparative method.

Results: Six themes were drawn out in this study, which described potential barriers to assessing oral health in post-stroke patients, aspects of oral health that need assessment, streamlining the oral health assessment, input methods for oral health assessment, characteristics of assessors, and how oral care should be planned.

Conclusions: Assessment of oral health for post-stroke patients has been viewed as a complex task because of several identified barriers. Several suggestions have been proposed to overcome these barriers, aiming to enable more feasible and effective oral health assessments for post-stroke patients.

Clinical significance: The findings from this study have the potential to contribute to developing oral health measurement instruments that might be more successfully implemented and guide oral care planning for dependent patients after stroke.

Keywords: Diagnostic testing; Health services; Implementation science; Oral health; Qualitative research; Stroke.