Department of Dental Hygiene, College of Science & Technology, Kyungpook National University, Sangju, Republic of Korea.
Department of Preventive Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2018 Jan;74:100-105. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2017.10.002. Epub 2017 Oct 10.
The association between social capital and oral health had been reported in various ways, but still remains unclear. We investigated the association between the social capital of the elderly living in a rural region and their edentulism and chewing ability.
A total of 241 elderly aged≥70years living in a rural city of Korea participated in this cross-sectional study. Their social capital was surveyed by questionnaire assessing its network and trust dimensions. Their edentulism and chewing ability were assessed by oral examination and chewing gum whose color changes based on the mastication performance.
The mean age of the participants was 82.7 (ranged 71 to 101) years and 68.8% of them were female. In the binomial regression analysis, the general network aspect of the network dimension was significantly associated with chewing ability, of which the prevalence ratio was 1.88 (95% CI: 1.16-3.06) in the age, sex, education and marital status-adjusted model.
Our findings suggest that social capital, such as a poor social network, is associated with poor chewing ability in the elderly living in rural areas.
社会资本与口腔健康的关系已在不同方面得到了报道，但仍不明确。本研究旨在调查农村地区老年人的社会资本与其失牙和咀嚼能力之间的关系。
本横断面研究共纳入韩国农村地区 241 名年龄≥70 岁的老年人。通过问卷调查评估其网络和信任维度来调查其社会资本。通过口腔检查评估其失牙情况，通过咀嚼彩色口香糖评估其咀嚼能力，这种口香糖的颜色变化取决于咀嚼表现。
参与者的平均年龄为 82.7 岁（71-101 岁），其中 68.8%为女性。在二项式回归分析中，网络维度的一般网络方面与咀嚼能力显著相关，在年龄、性别、教育程度和婚姻状况调整模型中，其患病率比为 1.88（95%可信区间：1.16-3.06）。
本研究结果表明，社会资本（如不良的社会网络）与农村地区老年人的咀嚼能力较差有关。
