title: Association between tooth loss and cognitive function among 3063 Chinese older adults: a community-based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oral health has been found to be associated with cognitive function in basic research and epidemiology studies. Most of these studies had no comprehensive clinical diagnosis on cognitive function. This study firstly reported the association between tooth loss and cognitive function among Chinese older population.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 3,063 community dwelling older adults aged 60 or above from the Shanghai Aging Study. Number of teeth missing was obtained from self-reporting questionnaire and confirmed by trained interviewers. Participants were diagnosed as "dementia", "mild cognitive impairment (MCI)", or "cognitive normal" by neurologists using DSM-IV and Petersen criteria. Multivariate logistic regression model was applied to examine the association between number of teeth missing and cognitive function.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study participants had an average of 10.2 teeth lost. Individuals with dementia lost 18.7 teeth on average, much higher than those with MCI (11.8) and cognitive normal (9.3) (p<0.001). After adjusted for sex, age, education year, living alone, body mass index, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, anxiety, depression, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and APOE-ε4, tooth loss of >16 were significantly associated with dementia with an OR of 1.56 (95%CI 1.12-2.18).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Having over 16 missing teeth was associated with severe cognitive impairment among Chinese older adults. Poor oral health might be considered as a related factor of neurodegenerative symptom among older Chinese population.
authors: Department of Health Statistics and Social Medicine, School of Public Health, Fudan University, The Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China; Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Neurosciences, Shanghai, China.
authors: Jianfeng
authors: J
authors: Luo
authors: School of Nursing and Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America; School of Sociology and Political Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Bei
authors: B
authors: Wu
authors: Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Neurosciences, Shanghai, China.
authors: Qianhua
authors: Q
authors: Zhao
authors: Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Neurosciences, Shanghai, China.
authors: Qihao
authors: Q
authors: Guo
authors: Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Neurosciences, Shanghai, China.
authors: Haijiao
authors: H
authors: Meng
authors: Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Neurosciences, Shanghai, China.
authors: Lirong
authors: L
authors: Yu
authors: Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Neurosciences, Shanghai, China.
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Zheng
authors: Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Neurosciences, Shanghai, China.
authors: Zhen
authors: Z
authors: Hong
authors: Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Neurosciences, Shanghai, China.
authors: Ding
authors: D
authors: Ding
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003071:Cognition; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*