Abstract:
Objective
s To investigate key factors associated with poorer oral healthrelated quality of life (OHRQOL) of elderly Chinese people in Hong Kong who had orofacial pain(OFP) symptoms.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted using the University of Hong Kong's Family Medicine Unit as the sampling frame.People aged 55-70 years with recent OFP symptoms were included.The oral health-related quality of life (OHRQOL) was assessed using the Hong Kong Chinese version of Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14).Poorer OHRQOL was defined as there was at least one response of 'fairly often' or 'very often' to an OHIP-14 question.Standard questions were asked about OFP symptoms and characteristics in the previous month.The psychological factors were assessed using the depression/non-specific physical symptoms(NSP) scales of the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorder (RDC/TMD).Questions on dental attendance were administered prior to a standard clinical assessment.Multiple logistic regression with a forward stepwise selection method was used to investigate the key factors associated with poorer OHRQOL.
Results
One hundred people with OFP symptoms participated in the definitive study.The mean OHIP-14 additive score was 10.1 (SD 9.7).Results from the multiple logistic regression revealed that two independent factors were significantly related to poorer OHRQOL: moderate/severe RDC/TMD depression (OR=7.1, P<0.001) and OFP clinical classification as dentoalveolar compared to neurological/vascular (OR=4.8, P=0.016).
Conclusions
The study showed that psychological depression and clinical classification as dentoalveolar were significantly associated with poorer OHRQOL in the elderly Chinese people with OFP symptoms in the community of Hong Kong.The finding provides implication for effective management of OFP and improvement of OHRQOL of elderly people with OFP symptoms in Hong Kong.
Key words:
Oral health-related quality of life,
Orofacial pain,
Elderly Chinese
Jun ZHENG, Chun-mei WANG. The associations between psychological factors, clinical subgroup of orofacial pain and oral health-related quality of life[J]. Chinese Journal of Stomatological Research(Electronic Edition), 2010, 4(05): 487-493.