Application of short-form oral health impact profile on elderly Japanese

The purpose of this study was to use the oral health impact profile (OHIP-14) to evaluate the impact of oral disease on the quality of life of a group of independently-living elderly persons in an urban area of Japan.

A total of 1244 participants of the Senior Citizen's College, who attended the lectures once a week. They were community-dwelling, independently-living people over 60 years of age.

Japanese version of the short-form OHIP-14.

Internal reliability for the 14 items overall was very high (Cronbach's alpha = 0.95). Report of 'painful aching' and 'uncomfortable to eat' were the two most highly scored items using the mean sum OHIP-14 score. A multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that the sum OHIP-14 score had significant associations with self-assessment of general health, dental status, and a perceived need for dental treatment. However, age, gender, dissatisfaction with financial status or education level was not significantly associated with the sum OHIP-14. Compared with that of other countries, the items were ranked similarly, whereas the perceived magnitudes of the problems were quite different from other population.

The OHIP-14 in Japanese had a high internal reliability, was significantly associated with dental status and comparable ranking for items when compared with studies from other countries.