Relationship between subjective oral health and life style among Japanese elderly people in local city Tokyo : a cross sectional study

抄録

Objective : Maintaining oral health is important for physical health. Almost all people are prompted to visit a dental office owing to some subjective problem. This study assessed the relationship between subjective oral health and lifestyle.
Methods : The subjects were 377 self-supporting elderly people living in Tokyo. They were divided into natural teeth (NT) group (n=145) and partial denture (PD) group (n=232). A questionnaire including items about denture use, lifestyle, and subjective oral health about caries and periodontitis was administered for 3 months from November 2005.
Results : The risk of caries was significantly associated with a lack of sleep in the PD group (odds ratio [OR] =2.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] : 1.33-4.59, p<0.01).
Discussion : Lack of sleep duration increases stress, which also decreases saliva, thus increasing caries risk. In Japan patients generally remove dentures to relax the gums while sleeping. Also dentures collect more plaque and debris than denture free. Therefore it is suggested long awaking hours (lack of sleep duration) is high risk of caries because they wear dentures for long time in PD group. This subjective questionnaire might be useful to confirm subjects' awareness, and facilitated identification of problems, potentially increasing their motivation to seek treatment or improve self-care.