Gender modified association of oral health indicators with oral health-related quality of life among Korean elders

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the association between oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and oral health indicators including dental status, total occlusion force (TOF), number of natural and rehabilitated teeth (NRT), number of natural teeth (NT), and to explore the effect modification on the association by gender among Korean elders. Methods A total of 675 participants aged 65 or above recruited by a cluster-based stratified random sampling were included in this cross-sectional study. The 14-items Korean version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) was used to measure OHRQoL. The responses about OHIP were dichotomized by the cut-off point of 'fairly often' to determine the ‘poor’ versus ‘fair’ OHRQoL. Age, gender, education level, alcohol drinking, smoking, metabolic syndrome, frailty, and periodontitis were considered as confounders. Multiple multivariable logistic regression analyses were applied to assess the adjusted association between oral health indicators and OHRQoL. Gender stratified analysis was also applied to explore the effect modification of the association. Results The prevalence of poor OHRQoL was 43.0%, which was higher in women, less-educated elders, alcohol non-drinkers and frailty elders (p < 0.05). Elders with poor OHRQoL also showed lower values of oral health indicators than elders with fair OHRQoL (p < 0.05). Those with NRT ≤ 24, NT ≤ 14, and TOF < 330 N increased the risk of poor OHRQoL by 2.3 times (OR = 2.26, confidence interval [CI] 1.54–3.31), 1.5 times (OR = 1.45, CI 1.02–2.07), and 1.5 times (OR = 1.47, CI 1.06–2.04), respectively. In women, the association of NRT ≤ 24 with poor OHRQoL increased from OR of 2.3 to OR of 2.4, while, in men, the association of TOF < 330 N with poor OHRQoL increased from OR of 1.5 to OR of 3.2. Conclusion Oral health indicators consisting of TOF, NRT, and NT were independently associated with poor OHRQoL among Korean elders. Gender modified the association of TOF and NRT. Preventive and/or curative management for keeping natural teeth and the rehabilitation of missing teeth to recover the occlusal force may be essential for reducing poor OHRQoL.

Increased Oral Dryness and Negative Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in Older People with Overweight or Obesity

“…Our result was similar to a previous Thai survey, which reported that Thai elders with less than 20 natural teeth or less than four posterior occluding pairs, had lower OHRQoL than individuals with a minimum of twenty natural teeth or at least four posterior teeth occluding pairs [ 43 ]. Recent research found that the OHRQoL of older Chinese or Korean elders was mainly affected by the loss of teeth [ 7 , 8 ]. Nevertheless, the correlation in the current study disappeared after other influential variables were adjusted in the multivariate analysis.…”

“…Studies indicate that lower OHRQoL in older adults is associated with increased age, sex, socioeconomic disadvantage, anxiety or depression, negative self-rated general health, poor oral health, lack of dentures, dry mouth, poor chewing and swallowing function, and irregular dental visits [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Poor nutritional status has also a deleterious effect on OHRQoL [ 5 ].…”

Application of Artificial Intelligence in Orthodontics: Current State and Future Perspectives

“…To the best of our knowledge, this was the first and currently the only study that utilized AI to predict patient experience of orthodontic treatment, laying the foundation for further research in this area. However, a limitation of this study is that it only included patients' clinical features as input data and did not incorporate other potential influencing factors such as gender and education level, which could potentially affect the predictive ability of the model [151].…”