This study assessed the impact of self-reported periodontal health on the oral health-related quality of life among elderly Koreans.

Four hundred twenty one elderly Koreans in Seoul and suburban areas were selected with a cluster (institution) sampling method, and were requested to take oral examinations and finish questionnaires on the Oral Health Impact Profile-14(OHIP-14), and self-reported periodontal health status, such as periodontal symptoms, self-rated periodontal health and periodontal treatment need. As the dependent variable, OHIP-14 showed a positive skewed distribution (skewness: 1.17), we transformed to square-root form to apply parametric analyses. Bivariate analysis by t-test and ANOVA, and multivariate analysis with the two-level regression model accounting clusters were implemented.

Mean age of the subjects was 74.6 years and 66.5% were women. Fourteen items of OHIP-14 were summarized to one factor explaining 78.6% of total variance and produced the Chronbach alpha coefficient of 0.92. Results from the multivariate model, adjusting for age, sex, type of institutions, ability to pay, and number of teeth present, showed significantly lower OHIP-14 with reporting less than 3 periodontal symptoms (p<0.0001), rating their own periodontal health as above average level (p=0.0144), and thinking they don't need any periodontal treatments in the near future (p=0.0148), than their counterparts. The intraclass-corrrelation estimated by the final model was 0.028.

This study demonstrates a significant association between self-reported periodontal health status and the oral health-related quality of life.