Psychosocial aspects associated with self-reported oral health in Brazilians older adults.

Abstract

Oral health conditions can be determined by a series of factors that include psychosocial aspects. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between psychosocial aspects and self-reported oral health in Brazilian older adults. The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSI-Brazil) baseline data was analysed to develop this cross-sectional study. The outcome was self-reported oral health, and the psychosocial aspects included neighbourhood trust, life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. The associations were determined through Poisson regression models, controlling for socioeconomic, demographic and behavioural characteristics. A total of 9365 individuals with aged 50 years or over were included in this study. Individuals with good life satisfaction had 16% (PR: 0.84; 95% CI: 0.78-0.90) lower prevalence of having poor self-reported oral health. Individuals who have depressive symptoms and do not trust in the neighbourhood presented 17% (PR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.09-1.25) and 12% (PR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.04-1.21) higher prevalence of poor self-report oral health compared to those who did not show depressive symptoms and trust the neighbourhood. Our findings suggest that positive psychosocial aspects are moderately associated with better self-reported oral health. Therefore, we suggest that psychological health and social interaction should be present in public health policy actions.