G-2312-20084

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public research university in New England. Through its Elaine Marieb College of Nursing, UMass Amherst is proposing to conduct a research study that aims to determine the prevalence of oral and dental problems among residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities compared to older adults as well as investigate the relationship between healthcare utilization and these problems over time.

While CareQuest Institute has made a grant to UMass Amherst, this is a new project scope and team that will be collaborating directly with the Analytics and Data Insights team to conduct the proposed analysis. The project team will utilize the CareQuest Dataset from 2018 to 2022 to accomplish the following:

Determine the prevalence of oral and dental problems during three time periods: pre-pandemic, peak-pandemic, and post-pandemic, based on ICD-codes.

Explore the relationship between healthcare utilization and oral health problems among older adults in differing living situations (LTC and community-based),

Describe challenges and potential recommendations for addressing current oral health problems among LTC residents by obtaining insights from community advisors (i.e., care providers) regarding the issues faced by this population.

By conducting this analysis, the project team hopes to identify and produce quantitative data on the prevalence of key oral health issues and barriers that older adults are facing to bolster advocacy and clinical improvement efforts that may result in better outcomes. Additionally, this research approaches oral health as an area of care that should be more intentionally integrated when older adults are the subjects of care. This population of patients, whether living in LTC or community settings, is more likely to experience concurrent health issues such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (ADR), pneumonia, and other age-related morbidities. This study will be among the first to identify specific oral health problems for these older adults and will do so with a large and representative sample of residents from both living situations. Findings from this work will lay the groundwork for additional research on addressing oral health disparities and ensuring appropriate oral health care for this vulnerable population.

UMass Amherst’s project will engage dentists, nurses, physicians, patients, families, and other stakeholders representing historically marginalized communities to provide input and determine responsive opportunities to improve patient experiences and outcomes. The proposal is being recommended for funding in the updated request amount of $56,364. The original proposal included funding to purchase various claims datasets but was redesigned in partnership with ADI following the initial Concept review. CareQuest Institute grant funding will support the primary investigator from UMass Amherst and two consultant roles, including a secondary researcher and computer programmer to support data analysis and visualization. Additionally, the budget includes compensation for the 10 anticipated Community Advisory Committee members and conference attendance to present findings once the project is complete. This grant represents less than 1% of the organization’s overall budget.