Oral Health Status in Three Long Term Care Units of Schizophrenic Patients in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province, Iran

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. People with serious mental illness experience an erosion of functioning in day-today life over a protracted period of time. There is also evidence to suggest that people with serious mental illness have a greater risk of experiencing oral disease and have greater oral treatment needs than the general population. However, oral health has never been seen as a priority in people suffering with serious mental illness. Poor oral health has a serious impact on quality of life, everyday functioning, social inclusion and self-esteem (1). There are some evidences that the patients with schizophrenia show poor oral health and great need for periodontal treatment. The goal of this cross-sectional study was to assess the oral health status of a sample institutionalized patients with schizo-phrenia in Iran. The subjects were selected from patients with schizo-phrenia in three psychiatric long term care units in Chaharmala-Bakhtiary province, Iran during 2008. The inclusion criteria were patients with documented diagnosis of schizophrenia (DSM-IV-TR). The data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney and Spearman correlation test. The study was approved by Ethical Committee of Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences. The data were gathered by questionnaire for demographic information , patients' medical sheets, psychological interview and completing Standard Anderson Positive and Negative Scale questionnaires (SAPS, SANS), and complete dental examination determining Decayed/Missing/ Filled Teeth (DMFT) index of the total 123 schizophrenic patients. In this study, the average age of patients were 38.81 ± 10.46 years old, ninety percent had an education level of under diploma, most of them were urban residents , 82.8% were unemployed, and 67% had a history of hospitalization, mean hospitalization period was 6.67 ± 5.37 years, mean number of cigarettes per day was 3.95 ± 5.48, and mean smoking period was 7.20 ± 9.08 years. Mean score of positive and negative symptoms in pa-teeth. The Spearman test showed a significant positive correlation between age, smoking period, mean number of cigarettes per day and mean hospitalization period. The DMFT significantly increased with age (P = 0.001, r = 0.527), smoking period (P = 0.001, r = 0.332), mean number of cigarettes per day (P = 0.031, r = 0.171) and mean hospitalization period (P = 0.043, r = 0.157), but Mann-Whitney test showed no significant relation between sex and positive symptoms with DMFT (P > 0.05). In addition , the …