Edentulism and its relationship with self-rated health: secondary analysis of the SABE Ecuador 2009 Study

Edentulism is related to a number of conditions in older adults, impacting their overall health status and thus their quality of life and relationship with the environment. At the same time, self-rated health has been shown to be an accurate marker of overall health status. However there is little information on how edentulism relates to self-rated health in older adults of Hispanic origin. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of edentulism on self-rated health in older adults. We analyzed data from SABE Ecuador 2009, a cross-sectional study that included a probabilistic representative sample of 5, 235 community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years or older. The dependent variable was self-rated health and the independent variable was edentulism, with age, sex and comorbidities as confounding variables. In order to test the independent association of edentulism with self-rated health, a logistic regression model was fitted. Out of the whole sample, 77. 13% of older adults reported having fair/poor self-rated health. We found an independent association between edentulism and self-rated health with incremental risk according to number of missingteeth, ranging from OR 1. 35 (CI 95% 0. 75 - 2. 43) p 0. 32 for less than 4 missing teeth to OR 1. 88(1. 06 - 3. 32) p 0. 029for more than half of teeth missing. Even though oral health has long been considered separately from the rest of the body and mind, it is clear from our results that oral health is a very important component of global health status in the elderly.