Abstract: PURPOSE: To construct an oral care program for elderly patients with oral cancer during perioperative period. METHODS: Based on the content analysis of the guidelines and personal in-depth interviews of the doctors, nurses and patients, according to the clinical characteristics of the elderly patients with oral cancer and treatments, combined with PDCA cycle, the first draft of perioperative oral care program for the elderly patients with oral cancer was constructed. Delphi method was used to carry out two rounds of mail inquiry to 16 experts in related fields to determine the scheme. Excel 2016, SPSS 25.0 software package were used for statistical description and analysis. RESULTS: The questionnaire return rate of the two rounds of expert consultation was 100% and the overall expert authority coefficient was 0.84. After two rounds of expert consultation, the variation coefficient of each index was 0-0.240, and the overall coordination coefficient was 0.171. The oral care program was formed in three stages: preoperative, postoperative, and during radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The preoperative stage included 4 dimensions, 12 first-level items, 56 second-level items; the postoperative stage included 4 dimensions, 18 first-level items, 102 second-level items; the radiochemotherapy stage included 4 dimensions, 13 first-level items and 35 second-level items. CONCLUSIONS: The perioperative oral care program of the elderly patients with oral cancer accords with the characteristics of the elderly patients with oral cancer during perioperative period, which meets the oral care needs of this group of patients. The construction of the program is reliable and provides a reference for clinical practice.

Key words: Elderly people, Oral cancer, Perioperative period, Oral care, Delphi method