Qualidade de vida, depressão e saude bucal em idosos do Sul do Brasil / Quality of life, depression and oral health in South-Brazilian older people

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2008

RESUMO

The oral health status of older populations has been described as poor. Oral diseases such as dental caries and its consequences, especially partial and complete tooth loss, are frequent and have been implied in poor oral health-related quality of life. However, the significance of oral disease on general quality of life, which is conceptually different from oral health-related quality of life, has been neglected. The main determinants of these oral diseases in older persons are related, mainly, to social inequalities and to classic individual variables such as poor oral hygiene and low saliva flow. The significance of psychologic reactions as determinants of dental caries has been little explored, regardless of its known ability in modifying salivary immunity and health behaviors. The objective of this study was to evaluate the associations of quality of life and depression with oral health in independent-living older persons from Carlos Barbosa, Rio Grande do Sul. This objective was attained by writing two manuscripts, presented as two Chapters in this Thesis. The objective of the Chapter 1 was to evaluate if oral health was associated with lower ratings in the World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire, brief version (WHOQOL-BREF) domains (i.e. physical, psychological, social relations, environment). Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a random sample of 872 Southern-Brazilians aged 60 years or more was evaluated using a structured questionnaire to assess socio-demographic data, quality of life and depressive symptoms. Oral examinations were also performed. Correlates of poorer qol (i.e. values of the WHOQOL-BREF≤median) were assessed by means of multivariate logistic regression. Results: Poorer qol in the physical domain was associated edentulism and reporting difficulty for chewing food. Poorer qol in the psychological, environment and social relations domains was associated with difficulty for chewing. Conclusion: In the studied population, oral health affected the perception of quality of life in general. In the Chapter 2, the objective was to examine the association of depressive symptoms with untreated caries. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a random sample of 390 Southern- Brazilians aged 60 years or more was evaluated using a structured questionnaire assessing socio-demographic, behavior, health and Depressive symptoms data. Oral examinations were carried out in order to assess dental status, dental plaque and unstimulated saliva flow. A hierarchical model based on the framework of caries proposed by Holst et al (2001) was carried out to assess if depressive symptoms were determinants of untreated dental caries. The following outcomes were analyzed: prevalence of caries and number of decayed teeth/number of teeth ratio. Results: Depressive symptoms were associated with the caries ratio>median outcome. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that depressive symptoms may act as determinants of caries, adding to the body of knowledge supporting the importance of psychologic reactions in oral health/disease processes. General Conclusions: Taken together, the results suggest that the interactions between oral health and well-being, in this study represented by depressive symptoms and general quality of life have a multidirectional character.

ASSUNTO(S)

epidemiology epidemiologia dental caries caries dentarias

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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