Does Periodontitis Affect Quality of Life (QoL) in Older Men vs. Women?

Objectives: Does Periodontitis Affect Quality of Life (QoL) in Older Men vs. Women?
Methods: Men and women over age 50 were recruited for participation with IRB approval. Complete periodontal exam was completed for all participants including probe depth, recession, (at six sites per tooth) and radiographic exam. Clinical attachment loss was calculated from this data. Whole dentition mean clinical attachment loss was calculated. Participants with mean clinical attachment loss greater or equal to 3mm were considered as having periodontitis and were included in analysis. QoL survey data was obtained for each participant and included five fields of QoL: occupational, health, emotional, sexual, and total QoL. All five fields of QoL were compared between men and women having periodontitis. The level of significance for the analytical test was less than or equal to 0.05.
Results: 38 men and 47 women met the periodontitis criteria and were included in QoL analysis.
Average occupational QoL (26.05±4.76 vs. 22.95±7.27; p= 0.024), health (26.87±4.19 vs. 22.33±7.84; p= 0.002), emotional (25.87±3.84 vs. 21.16± 6.91; p= 0.001), and total (88.71±11.36 vs. 73.64± 21.69; p= 0.001) were identified in men vs. women respectively and were identified to be significantly different.
Conclusions: Occupational, health, emotional and totalquality of life of females with periodontitis is significantly different from males with periodontitis. This data suggests vigilant diagnosis and treatment of periodontitis in older women for the improvement in QoL.