A Systems Perspective for Dental Health in Older Adults

Abstract

As the population of older adults in the United States expands with the aging of the baby boom generation coupled with longer life expectancies, the need for coordinated and cost-effective health policies becomes more acute. Oral health promotion and care may help prevent potentially debilitating oral conditions that can cause significant discomfort, affect social interaction, and reduce the ability to properly masticate, thereby affecting nutrition. Nonetheless, developing effective oral health interventions for older adults is challenging, owing partly to the complex set of causal pathways that are involved and the time delays that accrue over a life course. Drawing upon the methodology of system dynamics, a causal map was developed and is presented here to illustrate how relationships at the individual and interpersonal scales influence dental health outcomes among older adults. Specifically, chronic illness and nutrition-related dynamics are implicated in dental health, as is the availability of social support and oral health promotion. This systems perspective reflects shared knowledge among an interdisciplinary research team about the dynamics of dental health through a set of reinforcing feedback loops that are likely to be induced with age.