Caregivers' knowledge, attitudes and behaviour towards the daily oral care of bedridden patients in Chiang Rai, Thailand

ObjectivesThe objectives of this study are to explore caregivers' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards oral care for bedridden patients and to examine the relationship among those three variables.MethodsParticipants were 24 caregivers from Muang District, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, who agreed to be part of the study. Data were collected in January 2020 via a 24‐item questionnaire covering knowledge such as understanding what can cause and prevent oral problems, attitudes such as feelings towards providing oral care and behaviours such as actions taken to clean the patient's mouth. Caregivers were also interviewed using a semi‐structured guide to further explore their oral health care knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. Descriptive analysis and Chi‐square correlation were used to analyse quantitative data. Thematic analysis was used to explore the interview data.ResultsThe caregivers' roles were all informal, with an average age of 54.2 years and almost all were female (91.7%). They cared for bedridden patients who were on average 14 years older, comprised mostly of their parents (54.1%) and were partially dentate (79.2%); half were males. Although most caregivers (87.5%) did consider sugar as likely causing tooth decay, one in three did not think that fluoride toothpaste could help to prevent dental decay. None of the edentulous patients and 42.1% of the partially dentate patients had their mouths cleaned by their caregivers daily. Knowledge was not associated with the oral health care behaviour of the caregiver (P = .43). Financial constraints, limited knowledge and personal beliefs contributed to caregivers' behaviour towards oral health care for their bedridden patients.ConclusionsKnowledge remains unassociated with behaviour. Caregiver education and support are needed to maintain good oral health care practices for bedridden patients.