Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Despite research on oral health in India, little is known about the risk factors and health outcomes of oral disease in the older population. This study examines risk factors for tooth loss in the older population in India, as well as, the health conditions that result from tooth loss. The risk factors which were included in the study were age, gender, smoking and food habits, socio-economic status, and education. Several studies have shown that these risk factors were associated with the increase risk of tooth loss among the older population, but the results were not consistent and those studies were not done in India. These risk factors also have not been studied together in one study in the past. We used the World Health Organization’s Study of Global Aging and Adult Health survey which has a nationally representative sample of person aged fifty and older in India. The sample was comprised of 7,150 individuals aged fifty and older. Male participants made up 3,623 (50.70%) and female made up 3,527 (49.30%). Individuals who lost all their natural teeth comprised 13% of the sample and people with any oral problem comprised 18.4%. For every unit increase in age of each individual, the odds of tooth loss increased to 1. 068 and for every unit increase in the poverty measure, the odds of tooth loss increased to 1.204. The odds of one having hypertension and depression increases to 1.113 and 1.767 respectively when one has experienced tooth loss.