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Is negative affectivity associated with oral quality of life?
Author(s) -
Kressin Nancy R.,
Reisine Susan,
Spiro Avron,
Jones Judith A.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0528.2001.290602.x
Subject(s) - medicine , quality of life (healthcare) , psychosocial , negative affectivity , oral health , personality , explained variation , analysis of variance , positive affectivity , clinical psychology , gerontology , psychiatry , psychology , dentistry , anxiety , social psychology , nursing , machine learning , computer science
– Objectives: The personality trait of negative affectivity (NA) is associated with reports of worse physical health, more symptoms and worse health‐related quality of life but its associations with oral quality of life (OQOL) are unexplored. In this study we examined the association of NA with OQOL. Methods : We drew on data from two samples of older men: The VA Dental Longitudinal Study (DLS; n= 177) and the Veterans Health Study (VHS; n= 514), which included three measures of oral quality of life: the Oral Health‐Related Quality of Life Measure (OHQOL), the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP), and the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Instrument (GOHAI). For each OQOL measure, and the GOHAI and OHIP subscales, two regression models were estimated to examine the marginal change in variance due to NA: the first model included age, number of teeth, and self‐rated oral health, and the second added NA. Results : In both bivariate and multivariate analyses, higher NA was consistently associated with worse scores on the OQOL measures. In the regression analyses, NA explained an additional .01 to 18% of the variance in OQOL, explaining the most variance in the OHIP and the least in the OHQOL. The addition of NA explained more variance in the more subjective, psychologically oriented GOHAI and OHIP subscales than it did in the more objective, physical function oriented subscales. Conclusions : Psychosocial factors such as personality are significantly associated with quality of life ratings. Such associations should be taken into account when OQOL measurements are used and interpreted.