Background This study aimed to investigate the utilization of dental services by older seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic and to evaluate their ability of finding, understanding, and using information on COVID-19. Methods At the end of February 2021, a survey addressing demographic characteristics of the participants, (pain-associated) utilization of dental services, worries regarding a potential COVID-19 infection, the individual use of protective masks, and difficulties regarding the access to information on COVID-19 (by using the modified European Health Literacy Questionnaire [HLS-EU-Q16]) was developed. It was sent to all patients of the Dental Clinic of University of Leipzig who were either 75, 80, or 85 years old ( n = 1228). Participation was voluntarily and anonymously; questionnaires had to be returned within six weeks, no reminders were sent. Results Of the 439 replies (response rate 35.7%), twelve were excluded from data extraction due to disinterest, dementia, or lack of age information. Of the older seniors, 81.5% ( n = 348) had utilized at least one dental examination and 54.2% of the dentulous patients ( n = 199) had attended at least one dental hygiene appointment within the past year. Up to 55.8% of all participants said it was “difficult” or “very difficult” to find, understand, and use information on COVID-19, especially when judging reliability of information presented in the media, which was especially true for seniors with assigned care levels presenting odds ratios up to 5.30. Conclusions The investigation revealed a frequent utilization of dental services by older seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the older seniors encountered difficulties finding, using, and understanding information about COVID-19.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, health literacy, utilization, geriatric dentistry, gerodontology, older seniors, 【초록키워드】 reliability, COVID-19 pandemic, media, Masks, Dementia, Participation, COVID-19 infection, Patient, age, information, university, Care, questionnaire, Protective, Odds ratio, dental, hygiene, demographic characteristics, Older, Participants, clinic, data extraction, participant, European, literacy, Result, lack, evaluate, assigned, presenting, returned, were excluded, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19 pandemic, Health, Older,