Comorbid disorders and sociodemographic variables in temporomandibular pain in the general Dutch population

Abstract

Aims: (1) To determine the prevalence of temporomandibular disorder (TMD)-pain complaints in the general Dutch population; (2) to investigate its relationship with age, sex, educational attainment, and country of birth; (3) to determine its association with other pain complaints; and (4) to determine whether there are TMD subgroups (ie, with regard to their sociodemographic variables) that are more vulnerable for comorbid pain complaints.

Methods: Data from two large-scale population studies were available: 975 randomly selected adults, who were interviewed by an examiner from the Institute for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), and 11,948 adults who were registered in the Netherlands Twin Register and responded to a survey questionnaire. Chi-squared tests and regression analyses were used to determine whether there were any associations between the presence of TMD pain and the various sociodemographic or comorbid variables.

Results: The prevalence of TMD-pain complaints was 7.2% to 8.0%, and around twice as high in women than in men. The results were inconclusive for association with age, and no evidence was found for an association with country of birth or educational attainment. TMD-pain complaints were strongly related to the presence of other pain complaints. Interestingly, the number of reported comorbid complaints was related to all of the studied sociodemographic variables.

Conclusion: In the general Dutch population, women more often report TMD-pain complaints than men, and patients with TMD-pain complaints more often show other pain complaints than persons without TMD pain. In contrast to common beliefs, no clear association with age was found. Furthermore, widespread pain complaints were more common in non-native Dutch and lower-educated females.