Association between edentulism and cognition among people aged 50 and over / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate the association between edentulism and cognition in people aged 50 and over in China.@*Methods@#Cross-sectional data was collected from the first wave of World Health Organization Study on global AGEing and adult health in China, among people aged 50 and over in China. A comprehensive cognitive test was used to assess cognitive functions, including verbal recall (VR), verbal fluency (VF), forward digit span (FDS) and backward digit span (BDS) among the subjects. Association between edentulism and cognition was examined by a two-level (individual level and community level) linear model.@*Results@#A total of 12 843 individuals aged 50 years and over were included for analysis, with an average age of (63.0±9.3) years. The overall prevalence of edentulism was 11.0%. The edentulous adults had lower mean scores of VR (4.55), VF (10.88), FDS (6.25), BDS (2.96) and overall cognition (49.15) (P<0.001). Edentulism was negatively associated with VR (β=-0.216, 95%CI -0.370 - -0.062), FDS (β=-0.186, 95%CI -0.293 - -0.078) and overall cognition (β=-1.703, 95%CI -3.025 - -0.381) after adjusted for age, sex, residence, education level, marital status, household income, co-morbidity of chronic conditions, BMI, smoking and drinking alcohol.@*Conclusion@#Edentulism was related with lower cognition level in people aged 50 and over in China.