Relationship between Self-rated Tooth and Gingival Health and Self-rated General Health among General Japanese Subjects: The 8020 Health Study

Abstract

 Self-rated health is a simple way of assessing the health status. It is also used for oral health research in general population surveys. However, limited information is available on younger populations aged under 65 years.

 Accordingly, the aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between the self-rated tooth and gingival health and self-rated general health based on a survey conducted by the 8020 Promotion Foundation in 2015.

 For this survey, questionnaires were mailed to 5,000 people, aged 20 to 79, who were selected by stratified two-stage random sampling from Japanese municipalities, and 2,465 people responded (response rate=49.3%).

 Data without missing responses from 1,972 participants were used for analysis.

 The subjects were divided into three groups according to age: young participants (aged 20-39 years), middle-aged participants (aged 40-59 years), and elderly participants (aged 60-79 years).

 An ordinal logistic regression model was created to evaluate the association between self-rated tooth and gingival health and self-rated general health for each group.

 Multivariable models were adjusted for the number of teeth, sex, employment status, subjective economic status, education, comorbidity, presence of an adviser, and body mass index.

 Based on the ordinal logistic regression analysis, participants with good self-rated tooth and gingival health had significantly better self-rated general health. The adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) was 12.41 (7.22-21.34) for the young participants, 11.77 (7.50-18.48) for the middle-aged participants, and

10.07 (6.55-15.50) for the elderly participants.

 The present study suggests that the self-rated tooth and gingival health is significantly correlated with self-rated general health among general Japanese subjects in all age groups.