Self-Assessed General Health and Dental Status Among the Elderly in a Swedish County

A random sample of non-institutionalized elderly people in Örebro County, Sweden, has been examined. The present paper reports on the general health conditions obtained from interviews in this population and on the relation between general health and dental status. Eighty-one percent of the clinically examined subjects considered that they were healthy or fairly healthy. A higher percentage of women as compared to men regarded themselves to be moderately or very ill. Women also used more drugs than men did. Only 6% did not feel strong enough for extensive dental treatment. Physically handicapped people used dental services less than the rest of the population did. Otherwise, general health seemed to have limited influence on the use of dental services. Subjects with better dental status reported less frequent illness, chronic diseases, and medication as compared to subjects with poorer dental status. The self-assessed general health, also in the presence of age, sex, and residence variables, showed significant correlation with the dental status but not if socio-economic variables were also included in a regression model.