The relationship of oral state and health condition among elderly people

노인의 구강건강상태와 전신건강의 상태

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of oral state and health condition among elderly people. The subjects in this study were 220 senior citizens who were randomly selected from among dwellers in Eunpyeong-gu and Jongno-gu, Seoul. A survey was conducted by one-on-one interview to find out their oral state and health condition. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS 10.0 program, and variance analysis, correlation analysis and regression procedure were employed. The findings of this study were as follows: First, Regarding subjective oral health state, 52.3 percent of the elderly people, more than the half, considered their mouth to be in good health. The number of their mean remaining permanent teeth was 14.85, which was one of the indexes to indicate their objective oral state. Second, Concerning their abnormal oral health experience, 75 percent didn't feel that their masticatory force was good enough, and 55.9 percent felt pain in their teeth, 70.0 percent suffered from mouth dryness. Those fact showed that a lot of the elderly people felt there was something wrong with their oral cavity, and the unhealthy oral state made it difficult for them to eat food, as their masticatory force weakened and they couldn't get a good taste for food. Third, Those who viewed their oral cavity as healthy thought that they were in good shape, and there was a significant correlational relationship between their subjective oral and overall physical health states. Their own perception of oral state made a difference to their subjective health status, and the subjective oral health was significantly related to ADL as well, which implied that their ADL was different according to the way they looked at their own oral health status.