Self-perceived oral health status, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction in an older adult population

Numerous studies have demonstrated that many older adults have problems che wing, pain, difficulties in eating, and problems in social relationships be cause of oral disorders. However, it is not clear if these functional and p sychosocial outcomes affect broader psychological well-being and life satis faction. Consequently, this paper begins to address the question,'Does poor oral health compromise the quality of life?'. Initial cross-sectional anal yses used data derived from the seven-year follow-up of the Ontario Study o f the Oral Health of Older Adults. As at baseline and three-year follow-up, oral health was measured by self-ratings of oral health and five oral heal th indices. Psychological well-being and life satisfaction were assessed ac cording to the Morale Index, the Perceived Life Stress Questionnaire, The L ife Satisfaction Scale, and the General Health Questionnaire. All oral heal th variables were significantly associated with scores from the first three of these measures in the expected direction. These associations remained a fter we controlled for other potential influences on the quality of life. I n addition, prospective analysis indicated that self-perceived oral health at three years had a significant independent effect on psychological well-b eing and life satisfaction at seven years. These results suggest that poor self-perceived oral health and relatively poor quality of life co-exist in the same subgroup of older adults.