Introduction:

quality of life related to oral health can be measured through the evaluation of the Oral Health Impact Profile which allows estimating the social and functional impact of oral diseases in older adults.

Objective:

to determine the impact of oral health on the quality of life of institutionalized older adults.

Methods:

a descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at “Celia Sánchez” Nursing Home in Santa Clara municipality, Villa Clara province, during 2019. The population was represented by 140 institutionalized older adults, from which an intentional non-probabilistic sample of 138 was selected with their prior informed consents. The OHIP-14 questionnaire was used.

Results:

older adults aged 70 to 79 years (21.7%), males (72.5%) and whites (73.2%) predominated; the evaluation of the OHIP-14 showed the absence of the dimensions of functional limitation ( 83.3%), physical pain (81.2%), psychological discomfort (76.1%), physical disability (58.0%), psychological disability (60.9%), social disability (76.8%) and handicap (77.5%).

Conclusions:

a high impact of oral health on the quality of life of institutionalized older adults from the study population was determined, where the most representative dimension was physical pain and a greater general tendency was identified to respond “never” in the dimensions of social disability and handicap.