Association Between Job-related Stress and the Number of Present Teeth

Objectives: Job-related stress has been reported as risk factors such as onset of depression, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular. 52.3% of Japanese worker in 55 years old or older suffered from job-related stress. On the other side, there has been little research about the relationship between dental status and high-loaded job stress by judging from Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) nor focusing on middle aged. Therefore, we assessed the relationship between dental status and high-loaded job stress in middle aged workers in Japan
Methods: We recruited 350 participants aged 55 – 76 years (240 factory workers and 110 office workers) at Sendai, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka, Japan in November 2016 and in August 2017. First, we measured their work-related stress response by BJSQ. Second, we investigated demographic variables and the number of present teeth. Third, we analyzed these data by univariate logistic regression analyses and multivariate logistic regression analyses with forced entry method to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of demographic variables, and present teeth with regard to the high loaded stress group.
Results: 24 of recruited 350 participants were withdraw. Of the 326 study participants, 184 participants (54%) belonged to high loaded of job-related stress group. An univariate association (p<0.10) was showed these variables such as length of service, gender, education, job type, smoking status, alcohol intake per day, and present teeth. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, the OR for office worker to factory worker was 0.058 (95% CI, 0.004–0.87) and the OR for the number of present teeth was 0.79 (95% CI, 0.73–0.87).
Conclusions: The number of present teeth may be one of the indicators that can be used for assessing the job-related stress response of Japanese workers aged 55 years or older.