Self-perceived oral health status and influencing factors of the elderly residents of a peri-urban area of La Paz, Bolivia.

Full Abstract

AIM:
To assess the self-perceived oral health status of the elderly in Bolivia and explore the relationship between the socio-demographic and subjective factors that influence such perception.

DESIGN:
A cross sectional study.

SETTING:
Pampahasi, peri-urban area of La Paz, Bolivia.

PARTICIPANTS:
A 22.5% (300) sample was selected randomly from the total population (1,336) of 60 years and above. Of the participants, 293 agreed to participate in the survey.

METHODS:
Information was collected by interviews at home.

RESULTS:
The mean age was 70 years (SD = 7.7), with more females (57%) than males. Sixty per cent of subjects categorised their oral health as poor. Logistic regression analysis showed that poor self-perceived oral health was associated significantly with not going to school, no/ fair satisfaction with economic status, poor chewing ability, perception of need for dental treatment, and poor self-perceived general health status.

CONCLUSIONS:
Socio-economic factors seem to contribute to poor oral health among the elderly in Bolivia. Considering that these factors are associated with bad oral health behaviour and few visits to dental clinics, there is a need to design dental education programmes and enhance accessibility to dental clinics for elderly people living in the peri-urban areas of La Paz, Bolivia.

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Author information

Author/s: Ugarte, Juan (J); Abe, Yasuyo (Y); Fukuda, Hideki (H); Honda, Sumihisa (S); Takamura, Noboru (N); Kobuke, Yuko (Y); Ye, Zhaojia (Z); Aoyagi, Kiyoshi (K); Mendoza, Orlando (O); Shinsho, Fumiaki (F);

Affiliation: Department of Public Health, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Sakamoto, Nagasaki, Japan.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: International dental journal (Int Dent J), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Feb; vol 57 (issue 1) : pp 19-26

Dates: Created 2007/03/23; Completed 2007/04/19;

PMID: 17378346, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Bolivia
Dental Care - psychology
Epidemiologic Methods
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

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