Effect of social support and self-esteem on the oral health behaviors of Korean elderly people

Abstract

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Objectives: This study aimed to determine the oral health behaviors and the relationships between social support, self-esteem, and oral health behaviors. Methods: The institutions were selected based on the "2016 Elderly Welfare Facilities Status." A total of 195 people participated in interviews conducted using a 39-item questionnaire. It included information on the following topics: a) sociodemographic and health-related characteristics (11 items), b) oral health behaviors (6), c) social support (12), and d) self-esteem (10). Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, a reliability test, a t-test, an ANOVA, a Pearson's correlation test, and a stepwise multiple regression, conducted using the SPSS 23.0 program. Results: Of the 195 participants, 165 (84.6%) brushed their teeth twice a day; however only 74 (38.0%) participants used oral care products. Although many (64.6%) elderly people visited a dentist at least once a year, only a few (24.6%) visited the dentist for preventive purposes. Oral health behaviors had a positive correlation with self-esteem, significant others' support, and friends' support (.337, .270, and .254, respectively; P<.01). According to the multiple regression analysis, self-esteem, significant others' support, perceived health status, number of existing permanent teeth, friends' support, degree of exercise, gender, and average monthly expenditure had a significant effect on the participants' oral health behaviors. Conclusions: We demonstrated that social support and self-esteem might be major predictors of oral health behaviors. These results suggest that psychosocial factors need to be taken into account in the oral health education provided for elderly people.

Comparison of halitosis according to herbal mouthwash containing Glycyrrhiza uralensis extract and saline mouthwash: A randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study

“…This indicates that the mouthwash containing G. uralensis extract inhibits halitosis‐causing bacteria and reduces the prevalence of halitosis. According to Lee et al 42 the mean halitosis prevalence in adults is 25% in the US, 43 31% in Brazil, 44 20%–35% in China, 45 20% in Japan 46 and 25.9% in Korea 3 . However, 54.2% of patients want to treat halitosis, indicating that the majority of people consider themselves as having halitosis regardless of the actual halitosis occurrence.…”

“…Halitosis is experienced in the morning, at a fasted state, postprandial and when one did not speak for a long time. However, it is perceived most intensively in the morning where the release of saliva is minimized and bacterial activity is increased 3 . Halitosis is caused by physiological factors including the reduction of saliva release, which is commonly observed in the senile population, 4 intraoral factors including smoking and inflammation caused by insufficient oral hygiene care, 1,5 and extraoral factors due to hepatic, gastric and oesophageal diseases 6 .…”

“…However, it is perceived most intensively in the morning where the release of saliva is minimized and bacterial activity is increased. 3 Halitosis is caused by physiological factors including the reduction of saliva release, which is commonly observed in the senile population, 4 intraoral factors including smoking and inflammation caused by insufficient oral hygiene care, 1,5 and extraoral factors due to hepatic, gastric and oesophageal diseases. 6 In Korean medicine, halitosis is caused by undigested food in the stomach due to the excessive heat in the spleen and the stomach, and hormonal disruption.…”

Oral Health-related Quality of life and related factors in the elderly patients who received dental treatment

“…Furthermore, several studies present that oral health has a strong association and correlations with sociodemographic (7)(8)(9)(10)(11); physical performance (12)(13)(14); psychosocial and cognitive (12,(15)(16)(17); lifestyle (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24); social participation (25)(26)(27)(28)(29), and social support (30)(31)(32). In Thailand, there are a rarity of OHRQoL studies at adult population-based level in which the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) are regularly used (33,34); Oral Impacts were related to some social and clinical variables (34)(35)(36)(37).…”

“…Undoubtedly, the interrelationship of social support on the oral health of older people should not be underestimated (31). Furthermore, a positive correlation exists between oral health behaviors and self-esteem; oral health behaviors and significant others' support; and oral health behaviors and friends' support (32).…”