Friday, August 19, 2016

Aspiration Pneumonia Prevention For The Elderly Disabled People

By Virginia Ward


Pneumonia is basically viewed as the fourth highly killing disease regardless of the accessibility of new effective antimicrobials in japan. This disease is basically a common cause of deaths especially to the elderly disabled persons. It has been viewed that this disease among the elderly people is mostly caused by in apparent swallowing disorder. There are several strategies which can be applied for aspiration pneumonia prevention amongst the elderly disabled people.

Although there exists several treatment guidelines especially for the aged who have lower infections exists, a call for more emphasis on aspiration prevention should be keenly considered with regards to the aged adults as deaths which are associated with this kind of disease may actually be staggering in this kind of vulnerable population.

It is therefore important to identify and put more efforts in addressing these issues so as to protect the well-being together with the health of the vulnerable generation. One of the factors greatly contributing to this infection is poor oral hygiene. Dental care has always been poorly given keen consideration especially for the LTC people.

Dysphagia is a term that refers to a subjective sensation of abnormality or difficulty in swallowing. This is a problem which is commonly viewed in the older generations and can possibly cause this kind of disease. It has been viewed out that about fifteen percent of the older generations tend to suffer from dysphagia with an estimation of about seventy percent of transfers to otolaryngologists for dysphagia appearing to be older people who are sixty years of age and above. As the age increases then the risk of contracting this kind of problem increases too.

It has also been viewed that nasogastric tubes tend to stimulate aspiration of such gastric content especially by damaging swallowing. This causes stagnation of the oropharyngeal secretions and thus limiting the tone of lower esophageal sphincter. All these problems may be possibly curved by elevating the head of an individual to bed.

These are some of the common behaviors which tend to be very common to those individuals whom have condition known as dementia and some other impairment. But even with this dementia condition, a major strategy which has been actually proposed to minimize the risk of hastening these kinds of behaviors is by properly enhancing communication with those residents before trying oral care.

Another factor which has significantly contributes to this disease is poor oral hygiene. One of the most things among the long term care residents that has never been keenly considered is the dental care. A cross-section study which was carried among the aged people with a mean age of eighty three revealed that seventy percent of them had not actually seen a dentist in a span of more than five years.

This seems like patronizing and it tends to significantly underestimate the abilities of the aged person. Educating the LTC staff is another important strategy to apply in oral care and in addressing accountability. Those nursing home staff usually tends to have little education with regards on how to effectively offer oral care to their clients and also the importance of providing such oral care. Studies have revealed that training the nursing home care staff can help to enhance oral care among those nursing home care individuals.




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