title: Association between the longest job and oral health: Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study project cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Inequality in oral health is a major challenge. Oral diseases and their risk factors accumulate throughout life. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association of longest job with oral health status and oral health behavior among older Japanese.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects were a total of 23,191 (11,310 males and 11,881 females) community-dwelling individuals aged 65 or over, living independently and able to perform daily activities from 30 municipalities across Japan. The outcome variables were oral health status (number of teeth, use of denture or bridge and subjective oral health status) and oral health behavior (dental visit for treatment and use of interdental brush or dental floss). The longest job was used as an explanatory variable. Age, educational attainment, equivalent income, and densities of dentists and population in municipalities were used as covariates. Two-level (first level: individual, second level: municipality) multilevel Poisson regression analyses were performed for each sex.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multilevel Poisson regression analyses showed that all variables of oral health status and oral health behavior were significantly associated with longest job after adjusting for all covariates except denture/bridge use and dental visit for females. People whose longest jobs were sales/service, skilled/labor, agriculture/forestry/fishery or others, or who had no occupation were more likely to have poor oral health status and oral health behavior compared to those whose longest jobs were professional/technical.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The longest job may be one of the major determinants of oral health status and oral health behavior in Japanese older people.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Sociology, Graduate School of Dentistry, Kanagawa Dental University, Yokosuka, Japan. yamamoto.tatsuo@kdu.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Tatsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Katsunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aida
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fuchida
authors.forename: Yukio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hirata
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003729:Dental Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003742:Dental Devices, Home Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003815:Dentists / Q000600:supply & distribution; D003817:Dentition; D003778:Dentures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D057187:Independent Living; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D009790:Occupations / Q000145:classification*; D009909:Oral Health; D011156:Population Density; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012923:Social Class; D014099:Toothbrushing / Q000295:instrumentation