Is negative affectivity associated with oral quality of life?
OBJECTIVE
The personality trait of negative affectivity (NA) is associated with reports of worse physical health, more symptoms and worse health-related quality of life but its associations with oral quality of life (OQOL) are unexplored. In this study we examined the association of NA with OQOL.


METHODS
We drew on data from two samples of older men: The VA Dental Longitudinal Study (DLS; n=177) and the Veterans Health Study (VHS; n=514), which included three measures of oral quality of life: the Oral Health-Related Quality of Life Measure (OHQOL), the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP), and the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Instrument (GOHAI). For each OQOL measure, and the GOHAI and OHIP subscales, two regression models were estimated to examine the marginal change in variance due to NA: the first model included age, number of teeth, and self-rated oral health, and the second added NA.


RESULTS
In both bivariate and multivariate analyses, higher NA was consistently associated with worse scores on the OQOL measures. In the regression analyses, NA explained an additional.01 to 18% of the variance in OQOL, explaining the most variance in the OHIP and the least in the OHQOL. The addition of NA explained more variance in the more subjective, psychologically oriented GOHAI and OHIP subscales than it did in the more objective, physical function oriented subscales.


CONCLUSIONS
Psychosocial factors such as personality are significantly associated with quality of life ratings. Such associations should be taken into account when OQOL measurements are used and interpreted.
Kressin
N R
NR
Center for Health Quality, Outcomes and Economic Research, VAMC, 200 Springs Rd., Building 70, Bedford, MA 01730, USA. Nkressin@bu.edu
Reisine
S
S
Spiro
A
A
Jones
J A
JA
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003817:Dentition; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008409:Mastication / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009909:Oral Health; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology; D010551:Personality; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012649:Self Concept; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012919:Social Behavior; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014728:Veterans