Criteria for diagnosis of pneumonia
were a new pulmonary infiltrate seen on a chest radiograph
and one of the following features: cough, temperature
greater than 37.8
C, or subjective dyspnea. Two
radiologists who were not involved in the studies made the diagnosis
of pneumonia. However, 51 patients were excluded
from the analysis because they died from causes other than
pneumonia during follow-up. Of the remaining 366 patients,
184 (mean age
standard deviation (SD) 82.0
7.8, 148 women and 36 men) had received oral care at
study entry; 182 (mean age 82.1
7.5, 145 women and
37 men) had not received oral care (Table 1).