Construction of a multidimensional oral health indicator for the older population in the city of Manaus-Amazonas

Abstract

Objective: Produce a multidimensional indicator of oral health, based on dental and nondental variables, for the older adult in the urban area of the city of Manaus-AM. Method: The data used are from a cross-sectional population-based study conducted in 2008 with randomly selected individuals aged 65 to 74 years, residing in the city of Manaus. To produce the proposed indicator, the dental variables (DMFT-Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth; CPI-Community Periodontal Index; PIP-Periodontal Insertion Loss Index) and non-dental (socioeconomic and index GOHAI-General Oral Health Assessment Index) were considered. An exploratory factor analysis synthesized these variables, facilitating the construction of the multidimensional indicator. Results: The analysis generated three factors that, together, explained 72.9% of the model's variance (KMO = 0.749 and p<0.001 for Bartlett's test of sphericity). These three factors were reduced to the "sum" variable, calculated from the sum of the factor scores per individual. The median of this new variable was the reference value for categorizing the individual's oral health condition into "favorable" or "unfavorable". Conclusion: The indicator was able to aggregate several dimensions of oral health into a single measure, in addition to enabling its reproducibility for the construction of other health status indicators.