Comparison of oral health ratings by dentists and dentate elders.
Previous studies suggest a discrepancy between the way dentists and patients measure oral health. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between a dentist's rating of an older dentate person's oral health and the patient self-rating using a single-item indicator, and to compare the clinical (i.e., number of teeth, caries, etc.) and subjective (problems with function, pain, etc.) factors that influence the rating. The study sample consisted of 776 older dentate people. Results showed that dentists judged subjects' oral health significantly more positively than the self-ratings. Approximately 30 percent of the elders rated their oral health identically to the dentist and half rated their oral health lower than the dentist. Bivariate comparisons showed that similar clinical and subjective variables were associated with the dentist and patient ratings. Multiple regression findings, however, highlighted differences in the factors that influenced the ratings. In addition, the proportion of variance accounted for by the clinical factors as opposed to the subjective factors was greater for the dentist rating (R2 = .28 of .33) than the subject self-rating (R2 = .18 of .43).
Atchison
K A
KA
School of Dentistry, UCLA 90024-1668.
Matthias
R E
RE
Dolan
T A
TA
Lubben
J E
JE
De Jong
F
F
Schweitzer
S O
SO
Mayer-Oakes
S A
SA
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016321:Dental Care for Aged / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D003766:Dental Occlusion; D003815:Dentists; D004955:Esthetics, Dental / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008409:Mastication; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009909:Oral Health / Q000592:standards*; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology; D010510:Periodontal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000175:diagnosis; D014481:United States; D014987:Xerostomia / Q000175:diagnosis