Association between oral health, cognitive impairment and oral health-related quality of life

doi: 10.1111/j.1741‐2358.2011.00542.x
Association between oral health, cognitive impairment and oral health–related quality of life Objective: Investigating oral health–related quality of life’s (OH‐QoL) relationship with cognitive state. Background: Oral health affects OH‐QoL and is poor in institutionalised and cognitively impaired people. Material and Methods: This was a cross‐sectional study involving 215 institutionalised elderly (82.9 mean age), who were interviewed, examined and cognitively screened using the Pfeiffer test. Results: Mean GOHAI score was 53.1; only 43.7% of the participants reported having a good OH‐QoL. Needing help with dressing or washing (OR 2.14; p = 0.004), having one to nine teeth (OR 4.65; p ≥ 0.001), eight or less occluding pairs (OR 2.74; p = 0.002), one to three caries (OR 1.85; p = 0.005) and being cognitive impaired (OR 0.54; p = 0.034) were significantly associated with altered OH‐QoL in bi‐variate analysis. Being edentulous (OR 3.18; p = 0.0046), having 1–9 teeth (OR 2.62; p = 0.056) and presenting mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (OR 0.32; p = 0.016) appeared as predictive variables in logistic regression for having an altered OH‐QoL. Conclusions: Participants having MCI had significantly better GOHAI score than cognitively normal residents. Performing cognitive screening parallel to applying any OH‐QoL instrument would make the results more reliable and would benefit cognitively impaired people.