Clinical correlates of oral health-related quality of life: evidence from a national sample of British older people

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships between an oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) indicator and specific clinical dental measures, in a national representative sample of the British older population. A random subsample was drawn from the free-living sample of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (people aged >or= 65 yr). This subsample consisted of 407 dentate and 346 edentate participants, who were clinically examined and interviewed. The OHRQoL was assessed through the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) indicator. After adjusting for age, gender, and education, dentate subjects with up to 8 occluding pairs of teeth were 2.66 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08, 6.51) times, and those with up to 2 anterior occluding pairs were 3.00 (95% CI: 1.55, 5.81) times, more likely to report oral impacts when compared with those having more occluding pairs of teeth. Edentate participants with inadequate denture adaptation were 1.92 (95% CI: 1.04, 3.53) times, and subjects with inadequate denture retention were 2.04 (95% CI: 1.13, 3.69) times, more likely to report oral impacts than the remaining edentate sample in each case. OHRQoL in older British people is significantly related to the number of occluding pairs of natural teeth among the dentate and denture quality among the edentate.