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Public health
Research
Community social capital and tooth loss in Japanese older people: a longitudinal cohort study
  1. Shihoko Koyama1,
  2. Jun Aida1,
  3. Masashige Saito2,
  4. Naoki Kondo3,
  5. Yukihiro Sato1,
  6. Yusuke Matsuyama1,
  7. Yukako Tani3,
  8. Yuri Sasaki4,
  9. Katsunori Kondo4,
  10. Toshiyuki Ojima5,
  11. Tatsuo Yamamoto6,
  12. Toru Tsuboya1,
  13. Ken Osaka1
  1. 1Department of International and Community Oral Health, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Miyagi, Japan
  2. 2Department of Social Welfare, Nihon Fukushi University, Aichi, Japan
  3. 3Department of Health Education and Health Sociology, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
  4. 4Center for Preventive Medical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
  5. 5Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Shizuoka, Japan
  6. 6Division of Dental Sociology, Department of Oral Science, Graduate School of Dentistry, Kanagawa Dental University, Yokosuka City, Kanagawa, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jun Aida; j-aida{at}umin.ac.jp

Abstract

Objective To date, no study has prospectively examined the association between social capital (SC) in the community and oral health. The aim of this longitudinal cohort study was to examine the association between both community-level and individual-level SC and tooth loss in older Japanese people.

Design Prospective cohort study

Setting We utilised data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) performed in 2010 and 2013 and conducted in 525 districts.

Participants The target population was restricted to non-institutionalised people aged 65 years or older. Participants included 51 280 people who responded to two surveys and who had teeth at baseline.

Primary outcome measure The primary outcome measure was loss of remaining teeth, measured by the downward change of any category of remaining teeth, between baseline and follow-up.

Results The mean age of the participants was 72.5 years (SD=5.4). During the study period, 8.2% (n=4180) lost one or more of their remaining teeth. Among three community-level SC variables obtained from factor analysis, an indicator of civic participation significantly reduced the risk of tooth loss (OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.88 to 0.99). The individual-level SC variables ‘hobby activity participation’ and ‘sports group participation’ were also associated with a reduced risk of tooth loss (OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.81 to 0.95 and OR 0.90; 95% CI 0.82 to 0.99, respectively).

Conclusions Living in a community with rich SC and individuals with good SC is associated with lower incidence of tooth loss among older Japanese people.

  • Social capital
  • Multilevel analysis
  • Tooth loss
  • Cohort study
  • Panel data

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010768

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