Predictive factors of temporomandibular pain in Kentucky women

Objective: This study investigates the predictive factors of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain in Kentucky women with a specific interest in violence exposure as a covariate. This study also investigates differences in predicting persistent and incident TMJ pain reporting. Methods: Data was collected by the Kentucky Women's Health Registry (2008 to 2010) from women 18 years or age or older (N= 3,196). The primary outcome was self-reported TMJ pain in the past three months. Covariates included age, race, general health status, education level, smoking status, and violence exposure. Logistic regressions were conducted to determine associations between reporting TMJ pain and the covariates. Results: TMJ pain in the three preceding months was reported by 9.6% of women in 2008 and 8.7% of women in 2010. Reporting poor general health was associated with higher risk of TMJ pain (odds ratio [OR] 3.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.37 – 8.30). Reporting TMJ pain decreased as age increased (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.21-0.58, for women 60-69 relative to women 18-29). Violence exposure was also associated with an increased risk of reporting TMJ (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.09 – 1.96). The strongest predictor of reporting TMJ pain in 2010 was reporting TMJ pain in 2008 (OR 36.97, 95% CI 26.99 -50.63). Conclusions: These findings support previous work that TMJ pain in women is related to poor general health, is persistent, and decreases with age. A new finding in this study is that women who have experienced violence exposure report more TMJ pain.