DMFT index ; FS-T index ; oral health behaviour ; socio-economic factor ; T-Health index ; T-Health modified idex
Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of indices such as FS-T, T-Health index, T-Health modified index based on socio-economic status and oral health behaviour by use of analysing the National Oral Health Survey(NOHS) data 2000.
Methods: A total of 8,712 was collected from Korean adults who had made up a questionnaire in NOHS 2000. Functioning Teeth Index is based on the aggregate number of filled teeth and of sound teeth with no decay, and T-Health Index is obtained with an arbitrary set of weighs which was used 4, 2 and 1 for sound, filled and decayed teeth. T-Health modified index is the index to be changed variously the weight. This study composed the multiple regression analysis model and compared the most impact of each model using the socio-economic status, the variables related to oral behaviour and every kind of oral health index.
Results: The model of using FS-T index(adjusted R-square=0.53) and T-Health index(adjusted R-square=0.50) is more persuasive into the explanation of the relation between the socio-economic factors and the general behaviour of oral hygiene than that of using DMFT index(adjusted R-square=0.32). It can be said that those indexes such as FS-T index, T-Health index and T-Health modified index have relation to the factors that are ages, sexes, educational background, the recent times of visiting dental clinic and self-cognition of the oral health. The study shows that it is the self- cognition of the oral health that gives the most impact on the variation of the each index. The study shows that there is little differences in the various indexes of T-Health and T-Health modified, though it gave some variations in the weighted index.
Conclusions: FS-T index and T-Health index must be considered in the future studies of the relation between socio-economic factors and oral health behaviour.