Impacting Factors of Oral Health Status on EQ-5D among the Elderly; The 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Objectives: The oral health status has reported to be as an important factor of EQ-5D. This study was to find out the effect of oral health status on EQ-5D in the Korean elderly. Methods/Statistical Analysis: A cross-sectional view study was conducted on a general population basis. 1097 subjects were participated and checked on socioeconomic history, smoking, drinking, regular dental visit and EuroQol-5D. The oral health status as periodontal disease treatment, chewing and speaking was measured. The data was analyzed using multi-level logistic regression for the impacting factors of oral health on EQ-5D with complex sampling methods by SPSS (ver.21.0). Findings: These results reported that chewing difficulty was the strongest impacting factor on EQ-5D. The other factors on EQ-5D were being younger, male, near rich and more walking activity. The elderly who had chewing difficulty was more likely to have low EQ-5D and had an independent effect statistically. This study was valuable in the view of rapidly increasing older people subjects in Korea. These results are valuable for the elderly who are rapidly increasing in Korea. According to existing reports, teeth missing number was closely connected with health outcomes and these are in consensus with this study results. Application/Improvements: Oral health management such as chewing difficulty and speaking may be very important strategy to improve the Quality of Life especially in the elderly population.