Relationship between cognitive impairment and oral health: results of the Health 2000 Health Examination Survey in Finland.
OBJECTIVE
The aim was to study oral health in relation to cognitive impairment in the general population.


METHODS
The study population comprised 2320 persons aged 55 years or older who participated in a nationally representative Health 2000 Health Examination Survey in Finland. The data were collected by interviews and clinical oral examinations. Cognition was assessed using a shortened version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (score 0-16). Poisson regression models were used to estimate the relative risk (RR) for continuous variables and logistic regression models to estimate the odds ratio (OR) for dichotomized variables.


RESULTS
The results show that individuals with cognitive impairment have more carious teeth (MMSE 11-10: RR: 1.3, CI: 0.9-1.7, MMSE 9-0: RR: 1.5 CI: 1.0-2.4) than healthy persons. Furthermore, compared to cognitively healthy subjects, those with MMSE 9-0 more often have no teeth and no dentures (OR: 5.2, CI: 1.0-26.6) and less often good denture hygiene (OR: 0.4, CI: 0.2-0.7).


CONCLUSIONS
Cognitively impaired subjects among older adults in Finland have more carious teeth, are more often edentulous without using a denture, and have poorer denture hygiene than cognitively healthy persons.
Syrjälä
Anna-Maija Hannele
AM
Department of Periodontology, Institute of Dentistry, University of Oulu, Oulu Health Centre, Oulu, Finland. Anna-Maija.Syrjala@oulu.fi
Ylöstalo
Pekka
P
Sulkava
Raimo
R
Knuuttila
Matti
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000209:etiology*; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D003778:Dentures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009066:Mouth, Edentulous / Q000209:etiology*; D009909:Oral Health; D009910:Oral Hygiene / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010514:Periodontal Pocket / Q000209:etiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires