This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Slade, G.D. Articles by Beck, J.D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Slade, G.D. Articles by Beck, J.D. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Variations in the Social Impact of Oral Conditions Among Older Adults in South Australia, Ontario, and North Carolina

Department of Dental Ecology, School of Dentistry, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7450, USA

A.J. Spencer

Department of Dentistry, The University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia

D. Locker

Community Dental Services Research Unit, University of Toronto, 124 Edward St., Toronto, ON M5G 1G6 Canada

R.J. Hunt

Department of Dental Ecology, School of Dentistry, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7450, USA

R.P. Strauss

Department of Dental Ecology, School of Dentistry, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7450, USA

J.D. Beck

Department of Dental Ecology, School of Dentistry, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7450, USA

Previous studies among older adults have demonstrated that oral disease frequently leads to dysfunction, discomfort, and disability. This study aimed to assess variations in the social impact of oral conditions among six strata of people aged 65 years and older: residents of metropolitan Adelaide and rural Mt Gambier, South Australia; residents of metropolitan Toronto-North York and non-metropolitan Simcoe-Sudbury counties, Ontario, Canada; and blacks and whites in the Piedmont region of North Carolina (NC), United States. Subjects were participants in three oral epidemiological studies of random samples of the elderly populations in the six strata. Some 1,642 participants completed a 49-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) questionnaire which asked about impacts caused by problems with the teeth, mouth, or dentures during the previous 12 months. The percentage of dentate people reporting impacts fairly often or very often was greatest among NC blacks for 41 of the OHIP items. Two summary variables of social impact were used as dependent variables in bivariate and multivariate least-squares regression analyses. Among dentate people, mean levels of social impact were greatest for NC blacks and lowest for NC whites, while people from South Australia and Ontario had intermediate levels of social impact (P < 0.01). Missing teeth, retained root fragments, root-surface decay, periodontal pockets, and problem-motivated dental visits were associated with higher levels of social impact (P < 0.05), although there persisted a two-fold difference in social impact across the six strata after adjustment for those factors. Among edentulous people, there was no statistically significant variation in social impact among strata. The findings suggest that there are social and cultural factors influencing oral health and its social impact, and that those factors differ most between dentate blacks and whites in NC.

Key Words: oral health • social impact • geriatric dentistry

Journal of Dental Research, Vol. 75, No. 7, 1439-1450 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/00220345960750070301


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H.L. Bailit Health Services Research Advances in Dental Research, December 1, 2003; 17(1): 82 - 85. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H.C. Gift, K.A. Atchison, and T.F. Drury Perceptions of the Natural Dentition in the Context of Multiple Variables Journal of Dental Research, July 1, 1998; 77(7): 1529 - 1538. [Abstract] [PDF]