ABSTRACT
To determine the body constituents patterns comprised of “qi, blood, fluid” factors associated with oral health-related QOL (OHRQOL) of patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS), 41 SS patients and 32 RA patients in remission were enrolled. The body constituents patterns were measured by using Terasawa's “qi, blood, fluid” score, and the simple version of yin deficiency questionnaire (yin-deficiency score). OHRQOL were evaluated using the oral health impact profile (OHIP-14). In the first study, the body constituents pattern scores were compared between SS group and RA (in remission) group, using the univariate and multivariate analysis. In the second study, the association between OHIP14 and the body constituents pattern scores was analyzed. In the first study, all the scores were significantly higher in SS group, and the multivariable logistic regression identified yin deficiency (p = 0.02) and blood stasis (p = 0.01) as the significantly associated factors with SS group. In the second study, all the scores, except for the blood stasis pattern, showed positive correlation with OHIP-14. The multiple regression analysis identified qi stagnation (p = 0.003) as the significantly associated factors with OHIP-14. This study revealed that yin deficiency and blood stasis are the significant body constituent patterns in SS patients. In the low OHRQOL cases, qi stagnation should be taken into consideration.