Effects of Changes in Smoking Behavior of Older Adults’ Oral Health

Abstract

While smoking is a crucial health risk, it adversely affects oral health, particularly becoming riskier for older adults who have smoked for a long time. This study identifies the patterns of smoking behavior changes in older adults aged 65 years and older and examines how the smoking behavior changes affect their oral health. Longitudinal data were derived from Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA) between 2006 and 2018, targeting the older adults 65 years and older in South Korea. The independent variable was the amount of smoking, and the dependent variable was oral health. For data analysis, SPSS 25.0 and M-plus 8.0 programs were utilized. As a result, the patterns of changes in smoking behavior of the older adults finally derived were ‘non-smoking,’ ‘decreasing,’ ‘high-level maintenance,’ and ‘decreasing after increasing.’ Furthermore, the relationship between the smoking behavior change pattern of the older adults and oral health was revealed. Specifically, as for the smoking behavior change pattern of the older adults, it was confirmed that the oral health was better in the ‘non-smoking’ pattern compared to the ‘high-level maintenance’ pattern. On the other hand, it was confirmed that the ‘decreasing’ pattern and the ‘decreasing after rising’ pattern did not significantly affect oral health. The findings imply that even if older adults smoked a lot in the past, if they quit smoking at some point, it can positively affect their oral health. Furthermore, it is suggested to allow public officials, medical professionals, and welfare experts to actively intervene for older adults to stop smoking for their oral health.

Effects of Exercise Behavior, Social Cohesion, and Social Support on Health Behaviors in Older Adults: Intervention in a Multi-Component Exercise Program

“…According to Margolis's research, it was indicated that well-educated, re-tired older adults may practice healthier behaviors, especially when they face new chronic diseases and start to make healthy behavior changes [78]; many studies have also confirmed that the level of education is related to practicing healthy behaviors [79][80][81][82]. The smoking habits of males and females were significantly different, which was consistent with many prior studies [73,[83][84][85]; moreover, the majority of older smokers were male [86]. In this study, among the older adults who were non-smokers and ex-smokers, 72% were male and 96% were female.…”