A study on oral health and quality of life in patients with hypertension

Abstract

Objectives: This study investigated the oral health and quality of life of patients with hypertension using the raw data of the 8th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the second year (2020) and 1,269 subjects were analyzed. Methods: The data underwent frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, general linear model analysis, and linear regression analysis using SPSS Statistics 26.0. Results: The quality of life (EuroQol-5 dimension: EQ-5D) of patients with hypertension was surveyed at 0.92 points/1 point. Quality of life according to general characteristics showed significant differences in gender (p<0.001), age (p<0.001), household income (p<0.001), and education level (p<0.001). Quality of life according to oral health showed significant differences in chewing discomfort (p<0.001), speaking discomfort (p<0.001), oral examination (p=0.004), toothache experience (p=0.020), subjective oral health (p<0.001) and oral care product use (p=0.006). Factors affecting quality of life were gender, age, household income, education level, chewing discomfort (B=-0.027, p=0.018), speaking discomfort (B=-0.049, p=0.026), toothache experience (B=-0.018, p=0.027) and subjective oral health (B=0.022, p<0.001). Conclusions: Based on the above results, it was confirmed that the oral health of patients with hypertension is a factor influencing the quality of life; thus, it is considered that it will be used as basic data for research on measures to improve oral health and quality of life.