Factors affecting attitudes toward dental appearance and dental function in a Swedish population aged 45-69 years

A questionnaire study was carried out on a random sample of 3,000 adults aged 45-69 years, living in Orebro county, Sweden. The response rate was 79.4 per cent. The purpose of this study was to develop measurements of attitudes toward dental function and dental appearance, and to investigate the relative importance of socio-economic factors to these attitudes. In factor analysis, two unidimensional variables explaining almost 54 per cent of the variance were developed, measuring the attitude to the importance of dental appearance and dental function. The variables were only moderately correlated. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were constructed, where low education was related to high importance of dental appearance, and low socio-economic status and its interaction with education were related to high importance of dental function. Both models had low predictive values and no significant relationships were found with age, gender, marital status, place of residence, use of dental care, or to satisfaction with teeth or received care. It is concluded that it should be possible to influence attitudes to dental conditions irrespective of demographic or socio-economic factors.