Social relations as determinants of oral health among persons over the age of 80 years.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze whether social relations during a 7-year follow-up influence oral health among generally healthy, community-dwelling persons over the age of 80 years.


METHODS
The present investigation is based on a subsample of 129 dentate community-dwelling individuals from The Kungsholmen Elders Oral Health Study (KEOHS), which included data from interviews and oral examinations. Social relations were measured in terms of marital status, living alone, frequency of contacts, number of confidants, and satisfaction with social contacts and with the frequency of contacts. Oral health was measured in terms of coronal caries and root caries.


RESULTS
The primary findings of the adjusted multivariate logistic regression analysis were that persons who lived alone or who became alone during the 7 years prior to the dental examination had greater odds of having coronal caries (odds ratio (OR): 2.4, 95% CI: 1.0-5.7) than those who continually lived with others, and that persons who were continuously dissatisfied with the frequency of their social contacts were more likely to have root caries than those who reported a sustained satisfaction with the frequency of their social contacts (OR: 2.9, 95% CI: 1.2-7.2).


CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that social relations are related to the oral health status of old-old individuals. From a psychosocial perspective, our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the background of oral health status in older adults.
Avlund
Kirsten
K
Department of Social Medicine, Institute of Public Health, Blegdamsvej 3, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark. K.Avlund@socmed.ku.dk
Holm-Pedersen
Poul
P
Morse
Douglas E
DE
Viitanen
Matti
M
Winblad
Bengt
B
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over / Q000523:psychology; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003729:Dental Care; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000145:classification; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D033062:Friends; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D016014:Linear Models; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D016017:Odds Ratio; D009909:Oral Health; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D017213:Root Caries / Q000145:classification