Health and quality of life differ between community living older people with and without remaining teeth who recently received formal home care: a cross sectional study

Abstract

ObjectiveTo assess oral health, health, and quality of life (QoL) of care-dependent community-living older people with and without remaining teeth who recently received formal home care.Materials and methodsFor this cross-sectional observational study, community-living older people (≥ 65 years), who recently (< 6 months) received formal home care, were interviewed with validated questionnaires and underwent an oral examination. Oral health, general health, medicines usage, frailty (Groningen Frailty Indicator), cognition (Minimal Mental State Examination), QoL (RAND 36), and oral health-related QoL (Oral Health Impact Profile-14) were assessed.ResultsOne hundred three out of 275 consecutive eligible older people (median age 79 [IQR (Inter Quartile Range) 72–85 years] participated in the study. Thirty-nine patients had remaining teeth and 64 were edentulous. Compared with edentulous older people, older people with remaining teeth scored significantly better on frailty, QoL, physical functioning, and general health. No significant differences were seen in cognition. Dental and periodontal problems were seen in more than half of the patients with remaining teeth. Two third of the edentulous patients did not visit their dentist regularly or at all.ConclusionsCare-dependent home-dwelling older people with remaining teeth generally were less frail, scored better on physical functioning and general health and had better QoL than edentulous older people. Dental and periodontal problems were seen in approximately 50% of the elderly.Clinical relevanceNotwithstanding their common dental problems, frailty, health, and QoL are better in home-dwelling older people with remaining teeth. To maintain this status, we advise not only dentists, but also health care workers and governments, to encourage people to maintain good oral health.

The Influence of Oral Health Factors on the Quality of Life in Older People: A Systematic Review

“…All reported associations regarding edentulism, number of teeth, number of missing teeth, and number of occluding pairs are shown in Table 2. Five studies reported significantly lower OHQoL in edentulous participants than in dentate participants (Hoeksema et al, 2017;Hoeksema et al, 2018;Motallebnejad, Mehdizadeh, Najafi, & Sayyadi, 2015;Stromberg, Holmen, Hagman-Gustafsson, Gabre, & Wardh, 2013;Zuluaga, Montoya, Contreras, & Herrera, 2012), two studies demonstrated a positive association between edentate patients in comparison to dentate patients and OHQoL (Lee, Yang, Ho, & Lee, 2012;Souza, Costa Oliveira, & Martins, 2017), and seven studies reported no significant association between edentulism and OHQoL (Alshammari, Baseer, Ingle, Assery, &Al Khadhari, 2018;Cornejo, Perez, de Lima, Casals-Peidro, & Borrell, 2013;Dahl, Wang, Holst, & Ohrn, 2011;Kohli, Sehgal, Nelson, & Schwarz, 2017;Rebelo, Cardoso, Robinson, & Vettore, 2016;Sheiham et al, 2001;Yu, Lee, Hong, Lau, & Leung, 2008). All studies regarding edentulism were crosssectional studies.…”

“…All studies regarding edentulism were crosssectional studies. Only two studies, showing either no significant association or a negative association between edentulism and OHQoL, met all quality criteria of the AXIS tool (Hoeksema et al 2018;Rebelo et al, 2016). One cohort study of poor quality showed that participants with permanent tooth loss were most likely to both worsen and improve OHQoL (Astrom, Ekback, Ordell, & Gulcan, 2018).…”

“…Performance and detection bias were often present in the RCT studies. According to the NOS, only one cohort study was of good quality and from the 53 cross-sectional studies, only three studies met all 20 criteria of the AXIS tool (Hoeksema et al, 2018;Porter et al, 2015;Rebelo et al, 2016).…”

Application of the Integrated Behavioral Model to oral self‐care behavior of community‐dwelling middle‐aged and older people in Taiwan

“…It could also be affected by factors such as chronic disease and degeneration of movement function, which may further cause psychological and nutritional problems (Blanco‐Aguilera et al, ; Deshpande & Amrutiya, ). Poor oral health conditions, such as tooth loss, can impact more than just physical function, nutrition, and socialization and may also influence quality of life, which argues for the importance of good oral health and the urgency to identify relevant factors affecting oral health (Bidinotto et al, ; Hoeksema et al, ; Masood, Newton, Bakri, Khalid, & Masood, ). Oral health promotion among middle‐aged and older adults is an important part of the public health nurses' role (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Oral Health Coordinating Committee, ).…”

Postoperative discomfort after implant placement according to the All‐on‐4 concept with or without Zygoma implants: A prospective clinical study

“…In comparison to natural teeth, the loss of the natural dentition is associated with a lower quality of life (Albaker, ; Hoeksema et al, ). Edentulous patients with implant‐supported restorations, however, have a higher quality of life than patients with complete dentures (Emami, Heydecke, Rompre, Grandmont, & Feine, ; Thomason, ).…”