Abstract: Objective  To understand the oral health status in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients, and to explore the impact of patients' demographic characteristics, sleep, water intake, and negative emotion on their oral health status.  Methods  A questionnaire survey was conducted on 1,186 MHD patients conveniently selected from April to August 2023.  Results   ①The oral health status score of MHD patients ranged from 8 to 22 points, with an average of (12.54±2.63) points. ②Univariate analysis showed that marital status (F=4.536, P=0.004), smoking (F=10.768, P<0.001), water consumption (F=10.565, P<0.001), medical expenses (F=5.308, P<0.001), hypercholesterolemia (t=-2.767, P=0.006), and coronary heart disease (t=-2.291, P=0.023) were associated with oral health status of MHD patients, and oral health status of MHD patients was negatively correlated with age (r=-0.068, P<0.05); ③Multivariate analysis showed that anxiety (F=6.7634,  P=0.010), sleep quality (F=9.374, P<0.001), hypercholesterolemia (F=4.197, P=0.041), proportion of medical expenses (F=2.758, P=0.017), smoking (F=4.19, P=0.006), and water intake (F=5.345, P=0.001) had significant effects on oral health.  Conclusion  MHD patients have poor oral health, and hemodialysis nurses should pay attention to the oral health problems of patients and improve the awareness of preventive oral health care for MHD patients. It is suggested to establish multidisciplinary professional teams to manage the existed or potential oral health problems to further improve the overall health status of MHD patients.

Key words: Hemodialysis, Oral health, Influence factors, Nursing