Number of teeth and nutritional status in Thai older people.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the association between the number of natural teeth and nutritional status in older Thai people aged 60-74 years.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Stratified purposive sampling from senior citizen centres, households in sub-districts and municipal communities in Chiang Mai metropolitan area.


METHODS
The number of natural teeth and underweight status.


RESULTS
Mean Body Mass Index was 22.1 (+/- 4.0) kg/m2 in the whole sample; 29.4% of the total sample were underweight. After controlling for confounders (personal income and age), there was a significant association between BMI and number of teeth. The crude odds ratio of underweight were 2.42 for 19 or less natural teeth and 2.84 for no natural teeth compared to 20 teeth or above (P < 0.001). A significant association was also found between number of natural teeth and being underweight (< 20 kg/m2) in the older age group (68-74 years) after controlling for personal income, gender, education and current smoking (odds ratio = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.25, 4.13).


CONCLUSIONS
The results support the association between the number of natural teeth and being underweight.
Srisilapanan
P
P
Department of Community Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Malikaew
P
P
Sheiham
A
A
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007575:Jaw, Edentulous / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007576:Jaw, Edentulous, Partially / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009752:Nutritional Status; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D012923:Social Class; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology; D014504:Urban Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data