The Association of Oral Health Status and socio-economic determinants with Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among the elderly: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between poor Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) and oral health determinants (eg being 75 years of age or greater, marital status, smoking status, denture wearing, depression, low educational level (<= 8th grade), poor general health, caries history, tooth-induced pain, decayed, missing filled teeth (DMFT) scores and periodontal diseases) among the elderly. Methods Formal search strategies in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane and Web of Science were performed to identify studies in English published before 1 December 2019. We assessed the impacts of the oral health determinants including being 75 years of age or greater, marital status, smoking status, denture wearing, depression, low educational level (<= 8th grade), poor general health, caries history, tooth-induced pain, DMFT scores and periodontal diseases) on OHRQoL among elderly individuals. The data were analysed using Stata 12.0 software. Results In total, 19 publications met the inclusion criteria of this meta-analysis. Findings indicate a positive association between low educational level (ie <= 8th grade), marital status, depression, smoking status, denture wearing, poor general health, tooth-induced pain, periodontal diseases and poor OHRQoL among the elderly. We also observed a negative association between DMFT, being older than 75 years of age on poor OHRQoL among the elderly. Conclusions This review identified that several oral health determinants were associated with poor OHRQoL. The efficacy of preventive measures and the economic aspects of tooth replacement approaches should be explored in the future. Developing oral healthcare plans and policies with the specific aim of improving OHRQoL among this group is essential.

Automated summary

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between poor Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) and various oral health determinants among the elderly. The findings show that factors such as denture wearing, periodontal diseases, and depression are positively associated with poor OHRQoL in the elderly, while factors like DMFT and age over 75 are negatively associated. Future research should focus on exploring preventive measures and economic aspects of tooth replacement, as well as developing specific oral healthcare plans to improve OHRQoL in this age group.