Dental Caries amongst elderly people in a Southern province,
Vietnam: A cross-sectional study
Accepted 10th August, 2017
Trinh T T Ha1, Duong M Duc2,3*, Nguyen
Thai Hung4, Tran Van Sau4, Pham Tuan Ngoc4
and Nguyen Duc Tin5
1Hanoi Medical University, 1 Ton That Tung, Trung Tu,
Dong Da, Hanoi, Vietnam. 2Hanoi University of Public Health, 1A Duc Thang, Bac
Tu Liem, Hanoi, Vietnam. 3International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH),
Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University,
SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden. 4Hospital 198, 9 Tran Binh, Mai Dich, Cau Giay,
Hanoi, Vietnam. 5Haiphong University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 72A
Nguyen Binh Khiem, Ngo Quyen, Haiphong, Vietnam.
The present study aimed to
investigate the prevalence and association of dental caries
amongst elderly people in Can Tho, a Southern Province in
Vietnam. A community-based, cross-sectional study amongst 1,350
elderly respondents (aged ≥ 60 years) was conducted using
cluster sampling design. Face-to-face questionnaires survey and
dental examination were used to evaluate the prevalence of
dental caries. The criteria used to assess dental caries were
decayed teeth with crown or root caries (DT), missing teeth due
to caries (MT), filled teeth due to caries (FT), decayed and
filled teeth (DFT) and decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT)
index. Prevalence of dental caries was 32.5% amongst elderly
people (a mean DFT around 1.06 and DMFT around 13 teeth per
person). Logistic regression analysis indicated significant and
positive association with the odds of dental caries amongst
elderly females (OR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.15 to 1.28), and elderly
people aged 60 to 64 years (OR = 2.15; 95% CI = 1.82 to 2.47).
Elderly people who were previously government officials was
inversely associated with the odds of dental caries (OR = 0.68;
95% CI = 0.52 to 0.80). In conclusion, dental caries is still a
common and frequently-occurring disease amongst elderly people
in Southern Vietnam despite the decreased trend of the disease.
The current study provided representative data on oral health
status amongst the elderly people in urban areas in Southern
Vietnam.
Keywords: Elderly, dental health survey, dental caries, oral
health, Vietnam.
This is an open
access article published under the terms of the
Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
Cite this article as: Ha TTT, Duc DM, Hung NT, Sau TV, Ngoc PT, Tin ND
(2017). Dental Caries amongst elderly people in a Southern province, Vietnam: A
cross-sectional study. Med. Med. Sci. 3(3): 018-022.
