Sense of coherence and oral health in older adults in Southern Brazil

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between sense of coherence and oral health among older adults treated at family health units in southern Brazil. Material and methods: The sample was composed of 164 individuals aged 60 years old or older. Socio-demographic and oral health variables were collected using a standardised questionnaire. Sense of coherence (SOC) was measured with the questionnaire proposed by Antonovsky containing 29 closed-ended questions. Poisson regression analysis was employed to identify factors associated with SOC. Results: Among the 164 older adults, 53.9% were edentate, 54.5% did not need any type of dental prosthesis, and 82.1% had good/adequate self-assessed oral health. The multivariate analysis revealed lower SOC scores among non-white individuals [Mean Ratio (MR)= 0.94; 95% CI: 0.91-0.97; P<.001], with poor/very poor self-assessed oral health (MR=0.85; 95% CI: 0.78-0.91; P<.001) and with one or more teeth present in the oral cavity (MR=0.94; 95% CI: 0.91-0.97; P<.001). Conclusion: The present results show that older adults who are self-reported as non-white, with one or more teeth in the oral cavity and with poor/very poor self-assessed oral health have lower SOC scores.