Oral Microbiome Changes During Hospitalization in Older Adults Not Receiving Mechanical Ventilation.
Kimberly Paige Rathbun, Mary Lou Sole, Shibu Yooseph and 3 others
PMID 40307181WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults admitted from skilled nursing facilities had worse oral health and less frequent oral care than those from home.
During hospitalization, both groups saw declining oral health and shifting oral bacteria, with nursing facility patients showing greater increases in low-abundance bacteria.
Key findings
01Patients admitted from skilled nursing facilities had worse oral health status and received oral care less frequently (mean 0.3 times per day) than patients admitted from home (mean 1.0 times per day).
02Oral health declined during hospitalization in both groups, with mean Oral Health Assessment Tool scores increasing.
03In the longitudinal analysis, low-abundance oral bacterial genera increased significantly in the skilled nursing facility group (from 20% at baseline to 42% on day 7) compared to the home group (15% to 23%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was underpowered due to recruitment challenges, resulting in a smaller sample than planned (46 enrolled vs 58 planned). The longitudinal analysis included only 28 patients, limiting the generalizability of the time-course findings. Factors known to influence the oral microbiome, such as antibiotic use and diet, were not included in the statistical analyses. No dental expert was involved in the oral health assessments. Some patients provided oral swabs instead of saliva samples due to clinical fluctuations, though subanalyses showed similar results for both collection methods.
Declared interests
None reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the shift in oral bacteria as a direct cause of adverse clinical outcomes. The study did not link these microbiome changes to specific patient outcomes like pneumonia or mortality, and confounding factors such as antibiotic use were not adjusted for in the analysis.