Hung Sa Lee1, Chunmi Kim1, Dohyun Lee2

1Department of Nursing Science, College of Health Science, Sun Moon University, Asan, Korea, 2School of Public Health, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA


Background: Although oral health in the elderly significantly affects their physical health and quality of life, there have only been limited studies on the relationship between oral health and quality of life. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between oral health, ADL, depression and quality of life in the elderly in Korea, and to provide data to assist the development of health promotion programs in this population.
Methods: Study subjects included 201 community dwelling elders recruited during December 1 to 31, 2013. Data collected included socio-demographics, oral health (OHIP-14), activity of daily living (ADL), depression status (GDS-SF) and quality of life (QOL). For data analysis, ANOVA test, t‐test, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis were performed using the SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0.
Results: Average score of OHIP was 0.71, depression was 6.34 and QOL was 2.12. There were significant differences in OHIP according to education (F=7.49, P=0.001), economic status (F=4.08, P=0.018) and disease staus (F=3.08, P=0.048). Also there were statistically significant differences in the depression status according to education (F=7.49, P=0.001) and economic status (F=4.08, P=0.018), and in QOL according to education (F=7.01, P=0.001), economic status (F=4.87, P=0.009) and disease (F=11.04, P<0.001). ADL influenced OHIP and depression, OHIP influenced depression and depression influenced QOL.
Conclusions: Oral health in the elderly should be considered in developing health programs for quality of life.
Korean J Health Promot 2014;14(2):50-58

Keywords: Oral health, Depression, Quality of life, Aged