Is Depression Associated with Edentulism in Canadian Adults?

It has been hypothesized that depression can be both a risk factor and a consequence of oral diseases. Tooth loss leads to discomfort, pain, and functional limitations which could lead to disability and, subsequently, to handicap. However, the association between depression and edentulism has not be...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Al Shamrany, Muneera
Other Authors: Lawrence, Herenia P.
Language:en_ca
Published: 2008
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1807/17489
Description
Summary:It has been hypothesized that depression can be both a risk factor and a consequence of oral diseases. Tooth loss leads to discomfort, pain, and functional limitations which could lead to disability and, subsequently, to handicap. However, the association between depression and edentulism has not been established yet. Data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) Cycle 2.1 were used to examine the association between edentulism and depression in community-dwelling Canadians 45 years of age and older. Separate logistic regression models were developed for dentate and edentulous groups as well. Different regression selection methods were implemented and the area under the ROC curve was used to select models with the highest predictability. Analysis showed that edentulism was not associated with depression. For the edentulous group, oral/facial pain was the only oral health factor predicting depression, whereas avoiding smiling or laughing, dry mouth, oral/facial pain predicted depression in the dentate individuals.