Self-Reported Oral Health and Quality of Life in the Elderly

Introduction: Given growing elderly population and high prevalence of oral and dental diseases in this age group, this study was conducted to investigate oral health status and related quality of life among older adults in Yazd located in central Iran. Methods: The cross sectional study was carried out on 210 elderly people aged &ge; 60 years under the guise of Yazd health care centers who entered the study via cluster random sampling. Oral health was assessed by DMFT index; and self-reported oral and dental health scale was also tested. Further, to measure the oral health-related quality of life, the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index was applied. Data were then analyzed by SPSS software through descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The mean score of age for the studied population was 67.22 &plusmn; 5.62 years. Of whom 60.48% were women, 79.05% were married and 42.4% were edentulous. The oral health-related quality of life mean score was 42.46 &plusmn; 5.76 (possible rang 12-60) and the DMFT index mean score was 20.33 &plusmn; 4.76. The correlation of oral health-related quality of life score with age (r = -0.213, p = 0.002) and DMFT index (r = -0.542, p < 0.001) was inversely significant. Further, that had a direct significant correlation with self-reported oral health score(r = 0.302, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Elderly people's oral health-related quality of life, self-reported oral and dental health status was not desirable. These factors have significant relationships with each other so that increase in DMFT index was associated with decrease in self-reported oral and dental health.