Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109882

Susan O. Griffin, PhD¹, Kari Jones, PhD², Paul M. Griffin, PhD³, and Jeff Etchason, MD². (1) Division of Oral Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, Mailstop F-10, Atlanta, GA 30341, 770-488-6055, sig1@cdc.gov, (2) DPPP, CDC, 4770 Buford Hwy NE MS K39, Atlanta, GA 30341-3724, (3) School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 765 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332

Objective: Examine association between self reported general health (SRGH) and self reported oral health (SROH) controlling for presence of other health conditions and socio-demographic status. Methods: We used data for adults, age>19 years, from the National Health Examination and Nutrition Survey 1999-2002. We estimated prevalence of health conditions for which data were available and their association (determined by logistic regression model) with poor SROH. We defined SROH as poor if individuals reported the condition of their mouth and teeth as fair or poor. Using a logistic model, we regressed poor SROH, presence of other health conditions, interaction terms for SROH and its significant covariates, and socio-demographic variables onto good SRGH. SRGH was defined as good if general health was described as very good or excellent. All reported associations are significant at p<0.05. Results: Among the 9,461 study subjects, 53.44% (se=1.07%) reported good SRGH. The most prevalent health conditions were arthritis (21.80%, se=0.71%), high blood pressure/hypertension (23.19%, se=0.84%), obesity (30.17%, se=0.93%), and poor oral health (34.75%, se=1.12%). After controlling for other factors, the odds ratio for SROH was 0.46 (95%CI=0.39-0.53); that is the odds of good SRGH were 54% less for those with poor SROH than for those with good SROH. Indeed, the odds of reporting good SRGH decreased more with the presence of poor SROH than with any of the other most prevalent conditions. Conclusion: SROH, a validated measure of oral disease among adults, is a significant predictor of health-related quality of life, controlling for other relevant factors.

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