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Objectives: The increasing medical expenses of elderly persons in Japan's rapidly ageing society have become a major concern. It is therefore important to elucidate the factors associated with such escalation. Here, we focused on the relationship between subjective self-assessment of oral health, as an index of general health, and medical expenses (excluding dental repair) under the hypothesis that oral health contributes to general medical expenses. Several studies have shown that oral health status is correlated with general health status among elderly persons. We speculated that oral health status might show a relation with medical costs among elderly persons. However, few studies have investigated this relationship to date., Materials and Methods: Participants were 259 elderly subjects (range: 65-84 years; 120 men, 139 women) residing independently. Subjective assessment of oral health was evaluated by their responses ('Good', 'Not good' and 'Not at all good') on a survey questionnaire. The correlation between subjective assessment of oral health and medical expenditure was analysed using Spearman's rank method, the Mann-Whitney U-test and the Kruskal-Wallis test. Medical expenses were used as the dependent variable in multinomial logistic regression analysis with background and intraoral factors as independent variables., Results: A slight yet statistically significant correlation was observed between subjective assessment of oral health and outpatient treatment fees., Conclusion: The findings revealed that subjective assessment of oral health is significantly and independently related to the medical expenses of community-dwelling elderly persons after adjusting for social background, living environment and physical factors., (© 2011 The Gerodontology Society and John Wiley & Sons A/S.)

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI) and general physical status among community-dwelling older adults., Background: Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index is a patient-centred assessment of oral health for older adults. We hypothesised that GOHAI is a significant indicator of general physical status of older adults., Methods: This study included 354 adults (age, ≥65 years) living independently. Body mass index, handgrip strength and one-leg standing time with eyes open were used to evaluate the general physical status. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationships between the GOHAI scores, its three subdivided categories (physical function, psychological function and pain and discomfort) and each physical status measurement. A stepwise linear regression model was applied with each physical status measurement as the dependent variable and the GOHAI scores and its subdivisions as the principal independent variable., Results: Positive correlations were found between the GOHAI scores, its three subdivided categories and handgrip strength. The physical function category positively correlated with one-leg standing time. The GOHAI and the pain and discomfort category scores were retained in the final models of stepwise regression for handgrip strength, and significant relationships persisted after adjustments for demographic, psychosocial, medical and dental status., Conclusion: The GOHAI scores and its pain and discomfort category score may be significant indicators of body muscle strength., (© 2011 The Gerodontology Society and John Wiley & Sons A/S.)