Mouth care matters – A HAP prevention strategy

•Hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP) is the most prevalent healthcare associated infection in the UK, placing a significant burden on healthcare with an associated increase in mortality and hospital length of stay.•At University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), using a dental nurse red...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Journal of infection Vol. 83; no. 3; pp. 381 - 412
Main Authors:	Garvey, Mark I., Wilkinson, Martyn A.C., Woodall, Helen, Smith, Caroline, Holden, Kerry, Cartin, Jenna, Dosanjh, Davinder, Holden, Elisabeth, Kiernan, Martin
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Elsevier Ltd 01-09-2021
Subjects:	HAP Hospital acquired infection Infection control Oral mouth care Hospital acquired infection Oral mouth care HAP Infection control
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	•Hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP) is the most prevalent healthcare associated infection in the UK, placing a significant burden on healthcare with an associated increase in mortality and hospital length of stay.•At University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), using a dental nurse reduced the prevalence of non-ventilated-HAP (NV-HAP) on several wards by delivering basic mouth care education to healthcare workers.•A Poisson regression model of the number of NV-HAPs demonstrated that the mean number of HAPs per 1000 bed days on four wards before the intervention was 63.5, whilst after the intervention it was 5.95, comprising a 90.63% reduction (p = 0.03851).•In conclusion, a basic mouth care intervention by a dental nurse may reduce NV-HAP. Given this promising data, further studies are required to investigate the efficacy of this intervention on a larger scale.
Bibliography:	SourceType-Other Sources-1 content type line 63 ObjectType-Correspondence-1
ISSN:	0163-4453 1532-2742
DOI:	10.1016/j.jinf.2021.05.032