Amount and type of alcohol consumption and missing teeth among community-dwelling older adults: findings from the Copenhagen Oral Health Senior study.
OBJECTIVE
To study if an association between total weekly intake of alcohol, type-specific weekly alcohol intake, alcoholic beverage preference, and the number of teeth among older people exists.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study including a total of 783 community-dwelling men and women aged 65-95 years who were interviewed about alcohol drinking habits and underwent a clinical oral and dental examination. Multiple regression analyses were applied for studying the association between total weekly alcohol consumption, beverage-specific alcohol consumption, beverage preference (defined as the highest intake of one beverage type compared with two other types), and the number of remaining teeth (≤ 20 versus >20 remaining teeth).


RESULTS
The odds ratio (OR) of having a low number of teeth decreased with the total intake of alcohol in women, with ORs for a low number of teeth of 0.40 [95 percent confidence interval (CI) 0.22-0.76] in women drinking 1-14 drinks per week and 0.34 (95 percent CI 0.16-0.74) in women with an intake of more than 14 drinks per week compared with abstainers. Similar relations could also be obtained for type-specific alcohol intake of wine and for wine and spirits preference among women. Men who preferred beer showed a decreased risk for a low number of teeth compared with men with other alcohol preferences.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, alcohol consumption, wine drinking, and wine and spirits preference among women were associated with a higher number of teeth compared with abstainers. Among men, those who preferred beer also had a higher number of teeth.
Copenhagen Gerontological Oral Health Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. karen.heegaard@mail.tele.dk
Karen
K
Heegaard
Kirsten
K
Avlund
Poul
P
Holm-Pedersen
Ulla A
UA
Hvidtfeldt
Allan
A
Bardow
Morten
M
Grønbaek
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001515:Beer / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057187:Independent Living / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D012923:Social Class; D013695:Temperance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014920:Wine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data