Dental Status and Impacts on Quality of Life

Methods: 1196 dentate people aged 55 years and older, attending for routine annual health check-ups at Guangxi Medical University Hospital in Guangxi, China, participated in the study. They had a face-to-face structured interview and a clinical dental examination. The OIDP index was used to assess the impact of oral conditions on daily life. Partial correlation coefficients were used to assess the relationship of 14 clinical indicators with overall OIDP score, OIDP intensity and OIDP extent, after adjusting for age, sex, occupation, subjective social status and self-perceived general health.

Results: The prevalence of OIDP in a sample of the older population in Guangxi province of China was high (60%). The most common impact was eating impacts (56.7%). All clinical indicators, except number of filled teeth, were significantly correlated with oral impacts, after controlling for covariates. However, correlations were weak, ranging between 0.10 and 0.26. The strongest correlation was for the relationship between the number of natural plus replaced teeth with oral impacts, irrespective of whether overall OIDP score, OIDP intensity or OIDP extent was used as a measure of OHRQoL.

Conclusion: clinical dental status significantly influenced quality of life in a sample of older Chinese population in Guangxi province, China. There were significant but weak relationships between clinical dental status indicators and oral impacts on daily performances. Clinical indicators that included natural plus replaced teeth were more strongly associated with oral impacts than their corresponding indicators that included only natural teeth.