Profile of the patients admitted in the Intensive Care Unit: longitudinal study
Intensive Care Units; Critical Care; Oral Health; Oral Diagnosis
It is essential that professionals involved in the treatment of intensive care units (ICUs) patients are aware of the importance of maintaining oral health. In addition, identifying possible causes and diagnosing changes in the oral cavity in ICUs positively contribute to the improvement of patient care and help to avoid possible complications. Currently, research seeks to develop approaches for the diagnosis of oral disorders and understand the oral care needs of these patients. Therefore, we aim to perform a longitudinal analysis of epidemiological profile and oral manifestations in ICU patients. From the results, we seek to understand what factors are associated with the development of oral manifestations in these patients. This is a prospective longitudinal field study conducted at the Polyclinic ICU from March to December 2019. The patients will be evaluated (3 times per week) during the hospital stay until the moment of medical discharge or death, when observed changes and medical information will be filled in the clinical form. Data will be tabulated in the Microsoft Excel® 2019 program (Microsoft Corporation, USA) and then exported to the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM, USA) version 25.0, which will be submitted for statistical analysis and subsequently may be submitted to analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis, repeated-sample ANOVA, Friedman, Pearson, Spearman, Pearson's chi-square, Fischer's exact test or Linear trend test. In all tests, the significance level adopted will be p≤0.05.