Table 3.

Comparison of Oral Health Quality of Life and Number of Permanent Teeth in U.S. Older Adults Aged ≥65 Years Stratified by Poverty Status and Race/Ethnicity (NHANES 2005–2008, weighted).

Outcome	Total	Living in Poverty		P-value*	Race/Ethnicity			P-value†
		Yes	No		White	Black	Hispanic
Fair/poor self-rated oral health (%)	31.6	48.3	30.0	<0.001	28.8	45.8	51.8	<0.001
NHANES-OHIP score, mean ± SE	2.5 ± 0.1	4.3 ± 0.4	2.4 ± 0.1	<0.001	2.4 ± 0.1	3.1 ± 0.2	3.8 ± 0.3	<0.001¶
Taste affected because of problems with teeth, mouth or dentures (%)‡ [Theoretical domain: Functional limitation]	5.0	12.0	4.2	<0.001	4.3	7.1	8.2	0.0028
Painful aching anywhere in mouth (%)‡ [Theoretical domain: Physical pain]	14.2	23.6	13.3	<0.001	13.0	19.9	18.4	0.0017
Uncomfortable to eat because of problems with teeth, mouth or dentures (%)‡ [Theoretical domain: Physical pain]	15.9	27.4	14.8	<0.001	14.7	19.3	25.9	0.0006
Self-conscious or embarrassed because of problems with teeth, mouth or dentures (%)‡ [Theoretical domain: Psychological discomfort; Psychological disability]	10.9	19.8	10.0	<0.001	9.8	16.7	15.7	0.001
Avoided food because of problems with teeth, mouth or dentures (%)‡ [Theoretical domain: Physical disability]	17.2	27.3	16.2	<0.001	15.9	19.7	26.1	0.0003
Difficulty with job because of problems with teeth, mouth or dentures (%)‡ [Theoretical domain: Social disability]	3.1	7.8	2.6	<0.001	2.5	3.7	6.5	<0.001
Life less satisfying because of problems with teeth, mouth or dentures (%)‡ [Theoretical domain: Handicap]	9.9	19.2	9.0	<0.001	8.9	14.1	16.5	0.0006
Number of permanent teeth, mean ± SE	15.6 ± 0.3	10.1 ± 0.7	16.1 ± 0.3	<0.001	16.2 ± 0.3	10.6 ± 0.5	15.1 ± 0.7	<0.001¶
<20 permanent teeth (%)	53.8	76.3	51.6	<0.001	50.8	78.7	59.4	<0.001

SE = standard error

NHANES-OHIP: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey-Oral Health Impact Profile

^*Two-sided t-test or Chi-square test

^†Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

^‡Positive NHANES-OHIP response: Occasionally/fairly often/very often in past year

^¶Bonferroni corrected P-value