title: Exploring the quality of life after denture-wearing within elders in Kaohsiung.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of the research is to investigate whether the elderly people's quality of life get improved after denture wearing.
  
  
  METHODS
  About 1600 elderly persons, over 65 years old, were sampled as the research target. The overall response rate was 71.62%. The tool of research is a structural questionnaire Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) that was used to measure the oral health-related quality of life. Individual's satisfaction of denture wearing divides into three groups: edentulous individuals who are satisfied with denture wearing, edentulous individuals who are not satisfied with denture wearing and dentulous individuals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The result shows the eight variables, which are oral health condition, frequency of snacks-eating, age, frequency in participation in social activities, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), vision, satisfaction with life and physical functions, have significant influence on total OHIP score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although being edentulous, if the elderly are satisfied with their denture, the quality of life can be maintained and not affected by oral health problems. It is suggested that the further researches can include more relevant factors when in a discussion on the oral health-related quality of life, especially, the subjective perception of individual's feeling.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Healthcare Administration, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: I-Chen
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yi-Hsin
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Pei-Shan
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: I-Ching
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001114:Areca; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003729:Dental Care / Q000523:psychology; D003817:Dentition; D003778:Dentures / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D009066:Mouth, Edentulous / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D009909:Oral Health; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology