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Relationships among oral hygiene behavior, toothache, and depressive symptoms in Chinese older adults

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Abstract

Objectives

The study aims to investigate the relationships among oral hygiene behavior, toothache, and depression among Chinese older adults.

Methods

We used data came from the 2018 wave of Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to evaluate depression. Binary logistic regression was performed to analyze the relationships among oral hygiene behavior, toothache, and depression.

Results

A total of 12,172 older adults were included in the study, of whom 27.2% had depression. Compared with those who did not brush their teeth daily, those who brushed their teeth at least once daily exhibited lower odds of having depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR] = 0.86, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.77–0.97 versus OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.71–0.93). Compared with those who did not have toothache, those who had toothache over the past 6 months exhibited higher odds of having depression (OR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.33–1.68). Living arrangement had a significant effect on the correlation between toothache and depression (p = 0.049), who lived alone and had toothache exhibited higher odds of having depressive symptoms.

Conclusions

Oral hygiene behavior and toothache are associated with depression. Taking effective measures to maintain a daily toothbrushing pattern and reduce the occurrence of toothache may mitigate the risk of depression among older adults, especially among those living alone.

Clinical relevance

The present study reports that the potential relationship between different oral hygiene behavior, toothache, and depressive symptoms.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available in https://opendata.pku.edu.cn/dataverse/CHADS

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Acknowledgements

Data used for this study were obtained from the “Chinese Longitudinal Longevity Survey” (CLHLS), organized and managed by the Center for Healthy Ageing and Development Studies, Peking University, with joint funding from the U.S. National Institutes on Ageing (NIA), China Natural Science Foundation, China Social Science Foundation, and UNFPA.

Funding

The work was supported by the 512 Talent training Project of Bengbu Medical College (BY51201203).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, 233030, Anhui, China

    Yan Cui, Ling Yang, Jing Du, Ying Duan, Qi Qi & Huaqing Liu

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  1. Yan Cui
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  2. Ling Yang
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  3. Jing Du
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Contributions

YC and HL conceived and designed the research question; HL managed the project and was responsible for acquiring the data; YC analyzed the data, prepared tables, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript; YD and QQ prepared the data for analysis; and YC, LY, JD, and HL provided input on data analysis and interpretation of results. All authors revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content and read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huaqing Liu.

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Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki as revised 1989. The 2018 wave of CLHLS study was approved by the Biomedical Ethics Committee of Peking University (IRB00001052–13074). All participants or their legal representatives signed written informed consent forms in the baseline and follow-up surveys.

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Cui, Y., Yang, L., Du, J. et al. Relationships among oral hygiene behavior, toothache, and depressive symptoms in Chinese older adults. Clin Oral Invest 27, 6147–6155 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00784-023-05231-8

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