RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: To assess the association between frailty and oral health services use in Brazilian older adults. METHODS: This cross-sectional study analysed the baseline data from the Longitudinal Study on Brazilian Ageing (ELSI-Brazil) representative of Brazilians aged 50 or over. The outcome was oral health services used in the year prior to the interview. The main exposure variable was Frailty defined by the frailty phenotype. Age, skin colour, wealth, sex, education, type of service, health insurance, number of teeth and self-perceived oral health were included as covariates. Prevalence ratios (PR) with their respective 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using Poisson regression with robust variance. RESULTS: 8405 individuals were included in this study. The prevalence of frailty was 7.5%. Regarding frailty status, the prevalence of dental service use was 47.0%, 48.5% and 4.5% for robust, pre-frail and frail individuals, respectively. Frail individuals had a 7% higher prevalence of not using dental (PR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.01-1.13) than robust individuals. Frailty was independently associated with not using oral health services. CONCLUSION: Given the complexity of the determinants of dental service use, frailty adds another dimension to be examined in older adults. Public health strategies considering a common risk factor approach should be endorsed.
Assuntos
Fragilidade , População da América do Sul , Idoso , Humanos , Brasil/epidemiologia , Estudos Transversais , Idoso Fragilizado , Fragilidade/epidemiologia , Serviços de Saúde , Estudos Longitudinais , Saúde Bucal , Pessoa de Meia-IdadeRESUMO
The aim of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the direct and indirect pathways between religiosity and tooth loss in older adults from Brazil. We analyzed the data of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging, a nationally representative study of individuals aged 50 years or older. The pathways were analyzed through structural equation modeling. A total of 9073 individuals were evaluated. It was observed that oral hygiene and smoking were mediators of the relationship between religiosity and tooth loss, through spirituality and social support, respectively. Spirituality also directly influenced the tooth loss.