Association between dry mouth and Oral Health Related Quality of Life among rural Korean adults

Abstract

Objective: The dry mouth has been known as symptom making uncomfortable people especially adults. Recent research suggested that the dry mouth affects the day-to-day lives of older people, but there were few studies that are dealt with participants including both adults and elders and evidence with adjusted association controlling for medical factors. This study aimed to evaluate the association between dry mouth and oral-health-related quality of life among Korean adults including elders controlling for potential confounders encompassing medical factors. Study Design: A cross-sectional study of longevity cohort in Sunchang (Korea) with 489 participants (aged 49-93) was performed. Dry mouth was measured with a single question and VAS and oral health related quality of life was evaluated using short form Korean version of Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14K). All the information about the main analysis and confounders were collected by interviews. Chi-square test and Spearman correlation were used for evaluating association between the dry mouth and OHIP-14K scores. Poisson regression analyses including confounders were applied to evaluate the adjusted association between dry mouth and OHIP-14K. Results: Mean value (11.03

sd, 10.24) and prevalence (84.2%) of total OHIP-14K scores with dry mouth had higher than mean value (6.87

sd, 8.17) and prevalence (72.2%) of those without dry, with statistically significant at the p-value < 0.01. Total OHIP-14K score (R=0.28, p<0.01) and six OHIP-14K subscale scores except social disability had a relationship with the dry mouth by spearman correlation. In multivariate Poisson regression analyses, our data showed dry mouth was found to be associated with prevalence of total (adjusted prevalence ratio (PR) of 1.16), functional limitation (adjusted PR of 1.49), physical pain (adjusted PR of 1.32), psychological discomfort (adjusted PR of 1.36), physical disability (adjusted PR of 1.49) and psychological disability (adjusted PR of 1.62) subscales OHIP-14K after controlling for confounders. The links was highlighted in elders aged 71-93 years, females, those with low economic-level, non-smokers, non-drinkers, those without diabetes, non-hypertensives, non-obese adults, those with non-medication, and denture-wearers. Conclusions: Our data showed that dry mouth was independently associated with OHIP-14K among the adults. Thus, dry mouth is substantial health problem that affects oral health related quality of life.