Chuinsiri Nontawat, Thinsathid Natthapol
Institute of Dentistry, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
Oral Health Center, Suranaree University of Technology Hospital, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
PLoS One. 2025 Mar 13;20(3):e0319819. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0319819. eCollection 2025.
Non-odontogenic oral pain is prevalent among the older people and significantly impacts their quality of life. Non-odontogenic oral pain is usually persistent and accompanied by comorbidities such as psychosocial distress and sleep-related problems, which further complicate pain management. The relationship between non-odontogenic oral pain and comorbidities in the older people, however, has not been well documented. This study aimed to identify the factors associated with non-odontogenic oral pain in an edentulous older population and to subgroup this population based on the patterns of oral pain and its associated factors. In this cross-sectional study, data from completely edentulous individuals in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for the period from 2017 to 2020 March (pre-pandemic) were analysed. Associations and correlations between oral pain and 46 other variables, including demographic, questionnaire, examination and laboratory data, were investigated using Pearson's chi-squared test and Spearman's rank correlation test. A p value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Clustering of the data was performed using the k-prototypes algorithm, an unsupervised machine learning. Approximately 42% of the edentulous older people experienced oral pain. 'Having been told to take daily low-dose aspirin' was significantly associated with oral pain. Oral pain was positively correlated with depressive symptoms and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), and negatively correlated with diastolic blood pressure, red blood cell count, haemoglobin level and haematocrit. The k-prototypes algorithm identified a cluster characterised by frequent oral pain, depression and EDS. This study identified distinct patterns of comorbidities among edentulous older people living with oral pain.
非牙源性口腔疼痛在老年人中很普遍，严重影响他们的生活质量。非牙源性口腔疼痛通常持续存在，并伴有心理社会困扰和睡眠相关问题等合并症，这进一步使疼痛管理复杂化。然而，老年人中非牙源性口腔疼痛与合并症之间的关系尚未得到充分记录。本研究旨在确定无牙老年人中非牙源性口腔疼痛的相关因素，并根据口腔疼痛模式及其相关因素对该人群进行亚组划分。在这项横断面研究中，分析了2017年至2020年3月（疫情前）期间国家健康与营养检查调查中完全无牙个体的数据。使用Pearson卡方检验和Spearman等级相关检验研究口腔疼痛与其他46个变量之间的关联和相关性，包括人口统计学、问卷调查、检查和实验室数据。p值<0.05被认为具有统计学意义。使用无监督机器学习的k-原型算法对数据进行聚类。大约42%的无牙老年人经历过口腔疼痛。“被告知每天服用低剂量阿司匹林”与口腔疼痛显著相关。口腔疼痛与抑郁症状和日间过度嗜睡（EDS）呈正相关，与舒张压、红细胞计数、血红蛋白水平和血细胞比容呈负相关。k-原型算法识别出一个以频繁口腔疼痛、抑郁和EDS为特征的聚类。本研究确定了患有口腔疼痛的无牙老年人中合并症的不同模式。
