Abstract

Chile experiences a process of demographic aging with an increase in the number of elderly people. A percentage of them resides institutionalized in Long-term Establishments for the Elderly (LEE). However, there is little information on the reality of the elderly in these LEE, so this study was conducted to compare the epidemiological profile of the prevalent oral pathologies as well as the chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), of institutionalized versus non-institutionalized elderly subjects. Seventy-six institutionalized and 43 non-institutionalized subjects were examined intraorally, and their clinical record, gender and age were obtained, according to inclusion/exclusion criteria. Differences were considered significant if the p value was <0.05. The results indicated that the female gender is the most common, with an average age 78.5 years, being the age subgroup of 80 years the predominant. The most prevalent oral lesions within the institutionalized group were denture stomatitis and irritative hyperplasia, while in the non-institutionalized these two lesions were less frequent. As for the presence of xerostomia, there was no difference between the groups. The most common condition in both groups was total maxillary and mandibular edentulous, with the latter variable greater in the institutionalized group (p<0.05). The most predominant NCDs for both groups were arterial hypertension, arthritis-osteoarthritis and diabetes mellitus (p>0.05) and depression was the most prevalent in the non-institutionalized group (p<0.05). This study provides valuable information on the epidemiology of elderly´s oral lesions and NCDs to favor the decision-making of public health policies.