The prevalence of dental impacts on daily performances in older people in Northern Thailand.

Abstract

To assess the prevalence of oral related impacts on the quality of daily life in older Thais. A cross-sectional study on a non-random sample. Metropolitan area of Chiang Mai, Thailand Subjects: 707 older individuals living independently, aged 60 to 74 years, 549 were dentate, 158 were edentate. Clinical examination and questionnaire for the Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (OIDP) index and on dental behaviours. About one half of the older people interviewed (52.8%) had at least one OIDP oral impact. The most common performance affected was eating (47.2%). The two main symptoms that caused oral impacts in the total sample were functional limitation and pain. The majority of older people had low OIDP scores below 8.0 (76.4%). Almost one in 10 had OIDP scores above 16.0. Individuals with a high income were more likely to have lower OIDP score (p<0.001). Subjects who had attended a dentist were more likely to have no oral impacts (p=0.02). There was a significant difference between OIDP scores related to some clinical variables; dental status (p=0.002), having mobile teeth (p=0.005), periodontal attachment loss (p<0.001), missing anterior and posterior teeth (p<0.001). Oral impacts that affected quality of life of older people were relatively common but not severe. The impacts were related to some social and clinical variables.