Previous studies among older adults have demonstrated that oral disease frequently leads to dysfunction, discomfort, and disability. This study aimed to assess variations in the social impact of oral conditions among six strata of people aged 65 years and older: residents of metropolitan Adelaide and rural Mt Gambier, South Australia; residents of metropolitan Toronto-North York and non-metropolitan Simcoe-Sudbury counties, Ontario, Canada; and blacks and whites in the Piedmont region of North Carolina (NC), United States. Subjects were participants in three oral epidemiological studies of random samples of the elderly populations in the six strata. Some 1,642 participants completed a 49-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) questionnaire which asked about impacts caused by problems with the teeth, mouth, or dentures during the previous 12 months. The percentage of dentate people reporting impacts fairly often or very often was greatest among NC blacks for 41 of the OHIP items. Two summary variables of social impact were used as dependent variables in bivariate and multivariate least-squares regression analyses. Among dentate people, mean levels of social impact were greatest for NC blacks and lowest for NC whites, while people from South Australia and Ontario had intermediate levels of social impact (P < 0.01). Missing teeth, retained root fragments, root-surface decay, periodontal pockets, and problem-motivated dental visits were associated with higher levels of social impact (P < 0.05), although there persisted a two-fold difference in social impact across the six strata after adjustment for those factors Among edentulous people, there was no statistically significant variation in social impact among strata. The findings suggest that there are social and cultural factors influencing oral health and its social impact, and that those factors differ most between dentate blacks and whites in NC.

Percent agreement and Pearson's correlation coefficient are frequently used to represent inter-examiner reliability, but these measures can be misleading. The use of percent agreement to measure inter-examiner agreement should be discouraged, because it does not take into account the agreement due solely to chance. Caution must be used in the interpretation of Pearson's correlation, because it is unaffected by the presence of any systematic biases. Analyses of data from a reliability study show that even though percent agreement and kappa were consistently high among three examiners, the reliability measured by Pearson's correlation was inconsistent. This study shows that correlation and kappa can be used together to uncover non-random examiner error.

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The distribution and determinants of tooth loss in older adults are poorly defined, especially in Blacks, who have been underrepresented in previous studies. This study investigated, epidemiologically, the distribution and predictors of tooth loss in elder Blacks and Whites by following a random sample of older adults in North Carolina for three years. It was hypothesized that Blacks would be at greater risk of tooth loss and would have different risk factors for tooth loss. Data from 263 Blacks and 228 Whites were collected by dental examinations and interviews conducted in the participants' homes. During the three-year follow-up, 53% of Blacks and 29% of Whites lost at least one tooth. Blacks lost 13% of their remaining teeth compared with 4% for Whites. Logistic regression models showed that factors related to tooth loss for Blacks were: more S. mutans in stimulated saliva, deeper periodontal pockets, more P. intermedia in subgingival plaque, high blood pressure, limited help from others, and few symptoms of depression. For Whites, significant factors were: more lactobacilli in stimulated saliva, history of current oral pain at baseline, more alcohol consumption, no history of past use of calcium or xerostomic medications, higher income, lower occupational prestige, and increased numbers of negative life events. This study showed that older Blacks were at greater risk of tooth loss than older Whites. For both races, factors such as oral bacteria, periodontal conditions, oral symptoms, and psychosocial and economic factors are related to increased risk of tooth loss.

The prevalence of missing teeth has been described for US adults, but little is known about the incidence of tooth loss in any segment of the population. This study investigated the 5-yr incidence of tooth loss in a random sample of Iowans aged 65 yr and older residing in two rural counties. These people had an average of 20 teeth at baseline and approximately 40% lost at least one tooth in the subsequent 5 yr. The incidence of tooth loss was highest for mandibular molars and lowest for mandibular canines. Men were more likely than women to lose teeth. Although we were able to identify a number of statistically significant potential risk factors for tooth loss, the multivariate models that incorporated all these factors were not good predictors of which people were at highest risk for tooth loss.