2023 Volume 73 Issue 2 Pages 112-121
The aim of this study was to show the associations among oral health beliefs, oral health behaviors, and number of teeth in older people. Oral examinations and questionnaire surveys were conducted involving 600 older people aged ≥ 70 years living in Niigata City in 1998. The questionnaire items were scored to measure the participants’ oral health beliefs and behaviors, and a logistic simple regression analysis was used to define the relationship between them. Furthermore, we conducted a final evaluation of the associations among the number of teeth as the target variable and oral health beliefs and behaviors. Then, we prepared three ordinal logistic regression models that combined or seperately treated beliefs and behaviors as covariates. Logistic simple regression analysis showed a significant correlation between oral health behavior and belief scores. Furthermore, ordinal logistic regression analysis showed a significant correlation between the number of teeth and oral health behaviors. These results indicate the inter-relation between oral health behaviors and beliefs. Moreover, they suggest the possibility that better oral health behaviors increase the number of remaining teeth in old age.
