Objectives:

The aim of this study was to investigate how dentists in the Netherlands and Flanders assessed their knowledge on oral health care to older people, what their attitude was and what barriers they experienced in rendering care to older people.

Methods:

The survey data was collected from a random sample of Dutch and Flemish dentists. Five hundred ninety-five dentists (37%) of the Dutch sample and 494 dentists of the Flemish sample (41%) completed the online questionnaire. Dentists were asked to respond to 15 Likert type items, representing opinions on provision of oral health care to older people and to give information about the number of older patients treated and about some profession-specific and personal characteristics.

Results:

The average number of patients treated per week was nearly twice as high in the Netherlands as in Flanders. Nevertheless, differences of opinions between dentists in the Netherlands and Flanders were relatively limited.

Conclusions:

This survey shows that in particular the actual number of older patients treated appears to be related with differences of opinions between Dutch and Flemish dentists about oral health care provided to (vulnerable) older people who live at home.

中文翻译：

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牙医对荷兰和法兰德斯（比利时）独立生活的老年人提供口腔保健的知识、态度和障碍的看法

目标：

本研究的目的是调查荷兰和法兰德斯的牙医如何评估他们对老年人口腔保健的知识、他们的态度以及他们在为老年人提供护理时遇到的障碍。

方法：

调查数据是从荷兰和佛兰芒牙医的随机样本中收集的。荷兰样本的 595 名牙医 (37%) 和佛兰芒样本的 494 名牙医 (41%) 完成了在线问卷调查。牙医被要求回答 15 个李克特类型的项目，代表对向老年人提供口腔保健的意见，并提供有关接受治疗的老年患者数量以及一些专业和个人特征的信息。

结果：

荷兰每周平均接受治疗的患者人数几乎是法兰德斯的两倍。尽管如此，荷兰和法兰德斯牙医之间的意见分歧相对有限。

结论：

这项调查表明，特别是接受治疗的老年患者的实际数量似乎与荷兰和佛兰芒牙医之间对向居住在家里的（易受伤害的）老年人提供口腔保健的意见分歧有关。