Anterior,but not Posterior,Tooth Loss is Associated with More Frequent Cognitive Impairment and Worse Self-Reported Oral Health in Community-Dwelling Elderly

摘要

Oral health is a risk factor for interference with cognitive function.The number of teeth lost is associated with of oral health-related quality of life (OHR-QoL).Objective.This study aimed to examine tooth loss distribution and the impact on OHR-QoL perception in cognitively impaired and cognitively normal groups.Materials and Methods.This cross-sectional study examined community-dwelling elderly aged ≥60 years in Indonesia.Cognitive status was assessed by a clinical psychotherapist by using the mini mental state examination (MMSE) with a score range of 0-30.Participants with a total score of <25 were defined as having cognitive impairment and normal have total score ≥ 25.Dental status was examined by a dentist involved the number of anterior and posterior teeth lost.An interview was conducted to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics and self-reported perception of oral health and functional status using part of an oral health-related quality of Life (OHR-QoL) questionnaire.The questionnaire used 0-4 scale.A Mann-Whitney test for numerical and Chi-Square for categorical data were used to compare the groups.The Spearman correlation test was used to analyse the correlation between number of anterior teeth lost and self-reported oral health with the MMSE score.For all tests,a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results.There were 13 subjects in the cognitive impairment group and 42 subjects in the normal cognitive group.The cognitive impairment group showed a significantly lower education level compare to normal groups,p<0.05.There is a significant difference of anterior tooth loss between cognitive impairment compared to normal the group,p<0.05.The Spearman correlation test showed anterior tooth loss related the MMSE score with a weak association (r= -0.294; p<0.05) in our study.The feeling of embarrassment due to the appearance of the teeth was significantly different between the groups,p<0.05.There was a weak correlation between the feeling embarrassed due to the appearance of the teeth with MMSE score (r= 0.298 ; p<0.05).Conclusion.Elderly with a low education level have cognitive impairment,anterior tooth loss,and feeling embarrassed due to the appearance of their teeth.There is a weak association between anterior tooth loss and feeling embarrassed due to the appearance of the teeth with cognitive function.