Oral health, anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms: findings from the survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe

BACKGROUND: There is limited knowledge regarding the association between oral health and mental health in terms of depressive symptoms and particularly anxiety symptoms. Therefore, our aim was to close this gap in knowledge.

METHODS: Cross-sectional data were used from wave 5 of the pan-European Survey of Health Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) (n = 62 358 observations). The Beck Anxiety Inventory was used to quantify anxiety symptoms and the Euro-D was used to measure depressive symptoms. Oral health was quantified based on the presence of missing natural teeth, the number of missing natural teeth and the extent of replaced teeth. It was adjusted for several covariates in regression analysis.

RESULTS: Multiple linear regressions revealed that the presence of missing natural teeth was associated with higher anxiety symptoms (β = 0.11, P < 0.001) and higher depressive symptoms (β = 0.22, P < 0.001) among the total sample. Among individuals with at least one missing natural tooth, the number of missing natural teeth was positively associated with higher anxiety symptoms (β = 0.02, P < 0.001) and higher depressive symptoms (β = 0.02, P < 0.001) - and fully replaced teeth (compared to not at all replaced teeth) were associated with lower anxiety symptoms (β = -0.35, P < 0.001) and lower depressive symptoms (β = -0.36, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: Our study stresses the association between lower oral health and lower mental health among older adults in Europe. Future studies based on longitudinal data are required.