[Relationship between lifestyle and oral health in Chinese elderly]

Oral health is very important particularly for elderly to live happily. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between lifestyle and oral health in Chinese elderly.

The subjects were 96 men (mean +/- SD: 70.1 +/- 4.9) and 92 women (70.7 +/- 5.4). Oral health status was evaluated according to the numbers of remaining, intact, treated, and untreated teeth and score in WHO's CPI code. By carrying out a questionnaire survey, we evaluated lifestyle factors, such as stress (SCL-S), smoking habits, drinking habit, sleeping hours, sports, snack habit, and tooth brushing habit. Logistic regression analysis was used in analyzing the data.

By multi-logistic regression analysis, men who smoke were more likely to have a lower CPI score than those who do not {odds ratio (OR) = 4.69, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.79-27.89, p < .10}. Men who brush their teeth less than once a day are less likely to have a lower CPI score than those who brush their teeth more than twice a day (OR = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.09-1.22, p < .10). On the other hand, women who experience much stress are more likely to have a lower CPI score than women who experience little stress (OR = 5.59, 95% CI = 1.29-24.15, p < .05).

The study indicated that smoking may affect oral health conditions in men, whereas stress may affect oral health conditions in women. The reduction in stress and abstinence from smoking are important in maintaining good oral health in Chinese elderly.