THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-REPORTED ORAL SYMPTOMS AND LIFE-EVENTS

This paper investigates whether eight specific life-events were relate d to self reported chronic (persistent trouble over the last 12 months ) and acute (trouble in the last 14 days) oral symptoms in a sample of 3861 civil servants aged 35-44 years. The results of a logistic regre ssion analysis taking age, social class and gender into account showed that a range of life-events-marital or family problems other than div orce, death of a relative, personal serious illness, serious illness o f a close relative, major financial difficulty and mugging and robbery -were significantly associated with either acute or chronic oral sympt oms. Further analysis showed that marital or family problems other tha n divorce was found to be the most important life event studied. The r esults support the argument that marital dissatisfaction leads to poor er physical and psychological health.