Differences in oral health status between institutionalized and non-institutionalized older adults

Differences in oral health status between independent and institutionalized adults have been difficult to interpret because the latter population is typically older and has a higher proportion of women, confounding any association between institutionalization and disease levels. We undertook an analysis of oral disease amongst institutionalized (n = 149) and non-institutionalized (n = 246) samples of older adults randomly selected from the population in East York, Ontario. When the confounding effects of age and gender were controlled by constructing 67 matched pairs, institutionalized people were more than twice as likely to be edentulous (OR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.09-4.29). This association was confirmed using data from all subjects in a logistic regression model. Analysis of covariance of data from dentate subjects revealed that the institutionalized seniors had fewer filled teeth (P less than 0.05, controlling for age and sex), but there were no statistically significant differences in the number of teeth which were missing, decayed, or requiring extraction. These findings suggest that antecedent, sociodemographic factors prior to institutionalization are responsible for the higher probability of oral disease in this group of older adults.