An extended life span has made people in general pay more attention to the importance of health and oral health as what affects the quality of life, and that also has contributed to having their health-related financial burden and pain compounded.
The subjects in this study were adults who were under 65 across the nation in Western age. They were selected by using a table of random numbers from a KTF directory, and a self-administered survey was conducted by mail from March through June, 2006. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS/PC WIN 12.0 program.
The major findings of the study were as follows:
1. As for the reliability of SF-36, an inventory of evaluating the quality of health-related life, Cronbach’s alpha of it ranged from 0.7 to 0.9. Concerning the reliability of its oral health-related life, Cronbach’s alpha of it was between 0.8 and 0.9, which indicated that the instrument was highly reliable.
2. Concerning relations between their oral health state and the quality of life related to general health and oral health, a higher quality of life was led by those whose occlusal conditions were normal, whose dental calculus was less and who had a less number of missing teeth and prosthetic tooth. And the gap between them and the others was statistically significant. Missing teeth made a difference to the quality of life related to oral health by approximately 12 to 15 scores when the rate of missing teeth accounted for 30 percent or less. The number of prosthetic teeth made little difference to the quality of life, but the denture wearers were different from the others in the quality of life related to oral health by about 17 to 29 scores.
3. As for connections between oral health state and the quality of life related to general health, those whose occlusal conditions were normal were in good shape, and dental calculus was closely tied into general health in five subcategories except for that of physical pain. Missing teeth made a difference by about 12 to 15 scores to the quality of life related to general health, except for vitality and mental health, when the rate of missing teeth represented 30 percent or less.
4. Regarding connections between the general characteristics of the subjects and their quality of life related to general health and oral health, those who were male, who were younger, who were better educated and who had a larger monthly mean income, led a higher-quality of life in association with general health and oral health. And the gap between them and the others was statistically significant.
5. Their gender had the biggest impact on their quality of life related to general health, followed by age, the number of prosthetic tooth, the number of missing teeth and monthly mean income. Their quality of life related to oral health was under the greatest influence of age, followed by gender, monthly mean income, the number of missing teeth, the number of filled teeth and the number of decayed teeth. The influence of all the factors was statistically significant.
6. Concerning relations between the quality of life related to oral health and that related to general
health, those whose oral and general health scores were both above 80 made up 60.5 percent of the subjects. The higher quality of life related to oral health was concurrent with the higher quality of life related to general health, and investigating into the former is one of useful ways to find out about the quality of life related to general health.
The above-mentioned findings lent credibility to the reliability of the Korean versions of SF-36 and
OHIP-49. One’s health cannot be complete without a good oral health, and the quality of life definitely hinge on oral health status. So the importance of existing teeth shouldn’t be overlooked.
Intensive research efforts should be directed into providing successful health education for different group of learners to improve their quality of life, and a larger number of subjects from different backgrounds should be examined to prepare more valid instruments.
Improved health education is expected to promote the health of people, to let them stay away from diseases and to help them live a better quality of life, and efficient health-care policies should be prepared to urge them to keep taking care of themselves.
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