MEDICAL ACTIVITY OF DENTAL PATIENTS OF ELDERLY AND OLD AGE
Relevance: Medical activity of patients is one of the components of a healthy lifestyle. This indicator reflects a person's attitude to their health, their compliance with medical prescriptions and recommendations, hygienic requirements and timely seeking medical help. In elderly people, compliance with preventive and other measures aimed at preserving dental health affects life expectancy and its quality. In this connection, the need to study medical activity in patients of all ages, especially among the elderly and senile, will make it possible to focus on improving the medical literacy of the population among various age and social groups. Purpose: To study and evaluate the medical activity of elderly and senile dental patients. Materials and methods: The study of the medical activity of patients was carried out by means of their survey on a specially designed questionnaire. During the analysis, the indicators were calculated according to a specially developed methodology. Research results: The study involved 348 patients, of which men accounted for 21,6%, women - 78,4%. The mean age of the patients was 78,6±4,7 years. The analysis of medical activity was carried out depending on gender and age according to four components: the timeliness of seeking medical help, the fulfillment of doctor's prescriptions, compliance with hygiene requirements for maintaining dental health, and the implementation of measures to prevent diseases of the oral cavity. Patients showed the greatest medical activity in compliance with hygiene requirements 94,7%, the least - when applying for dental care 66,1%. Conclusions: The integral assessment of the medical activity of elderly and senile dental patients was 79,2%, which indicates its insufficient level and the possibility of an increase by 20,8%, which confirms the importance and necessity of working with elderly and senile patients to increase their medical activity.