Socioeconomic Inequalities in Oral Frailty Among Older Adults: A Causal Mediation Analysis on the Role of Prevention From Tooth Loss.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although social inequalities in oral health have been suggested, the link between socioeconomic status (SES) and oral frailty (OF) remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the inequalities in OF according to SES and the extent to which inequalities are mitigated by preventing tooth loss.

Methods

We used cross-sectional data from 21 542 functionally independent participants aged ≥ 65 (48.5% men) from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study. The prevalence of OF, number of teeth, and educational attainment (EA) and equivalent income (EI) were used as outcome, mediator and explanatory variables, respectively. A Poisson regression model was used to examine the association between SES and OF. Causal mediation analysis was performed to calculate the prevalence ratios

SUBMITTER: Fujita M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12624153 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature