Department of Community Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Department of Oral Diagnosis and Oral Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Western University, Pathumthani, Thailand.
BMC Oral Health. 2023 Jan 22;23(1):35. doi: 10.1186/s12903-023-02742-4.
The number of older adults in Thailand is increasing. Better chewing ability is associated with healthy aging. Although numerous studies have demonstrated the relationship between social backgrounds, dental service utilization, oral status and chewing difficulty, there is no study in Thailand using national oral health data to identify the variables involved with chewing difficulty among Thai older adults. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the association between oral status, and chewing difficulty, adjusting for social backgrounds, and dental service utilization among Thai older adults.
This cross-sectional study used data from the eighth Thai National Oral Health Survey (TNOHS). A stratified multi-stage method was used for sample selection. The eighth TNOHS was conducted from June-August 2017. Data were collected using interviews and clinical oral examinations by trained interviewers and trained dentists, respectively. The bivariate analysis, chi-square test was used to explore the associations between social backgrounds, dental service utilization, oral status, and chewing difficulty. Dependent variables with p-values of < 0.2 for their association with independent variables in the bivariate analysis were entered into the multiple logistic regression models.
This study found that older adults with at least 27 teeth (p < 0.05), or at least eight occlusal pairs (p < 0.05) or income exceeding 15,000 baht per month (p < 0.05) were more likely to have less chewing difficulty (p < 0.001), while the elderly who utilized dental services in the past 12 months were associated with more chewing difficulty than those who did not utilize dental services in the past 12 months (p < 0.001).
We suggest that policymakers increase the number of preventive plans and set a goal for more than 20 remaining natural teeth and four posterior occlusal pairs in young and working aged people, especially in the low income group.
泰国的老年人数量正在增加。更好的咀嚼能力与健康老龄化有关。尽管许多研究已经表明社会背景、牙科服务利用、口腔状况和咀嚼困难之间存在关系，但泰国尚无研究使用国家口腔健康数据来确定泰国老年人咀嚼困难的相关变量。因此，本研究旨在确定口腔状况与咀嚼困难之间的关系，同时调整社会背景和牙科服务利用因素。
本横断面研究使用了第八次泰国全国口腔健康调查（TNOHS）的数据。采用分层多阶段方法进行样本选择。第八次 TNOHS 于 2017 年 6 月至 8 月进行。数据由经过培训的访谈员和牙医分别通过访谈和临床口腔检查收集。使用双变量分析和卡方检验探讨社会背景、牙科服务利用、口腔状况和咀嚼困难之间的关系。在双变量分析中，与自变量相关的 p 值小于 0.2 的因变量被纳入多因素逻辑回归模型。
本研究发现，至少有 27 颗牙齿（p<0.05）、至少有 8 个咬合对（p<0.05）或每月收入超过 15,000 泰铢（p<0.05）的老年人咀嚼困难程度较低（p<0.001），而过去 12 个月内使用过牙科服务的老年人比过去 12 个月内未使用过牙科服务的老年人更易出现咀嚼困难（p<0.001）。
我们建议政策制定者增加预防计划的数量，并为年轻人和工作年龄段的人设定目标，即保留超过 20 颗天然牙和 4 个后牙咬合对，特别是在低收入群体中。
