Social capital and oral health: The association of social capital with edentulism and chewing ability in the rural elderly.

OBJECTIVE: The association between social capital and oral health had been reported in various ways, but still remains unclear. We investigated the association between the social capital of the elderly living in a rural region and their edentulism and chewing ability. METHODS: A total of 241 elderly aged≥70years living in a rural city of Korea participated in this cross-sectional study. Their social capital was surveyed by questionnaire assessing its network and trust dimensions. Their edentulism and chewing ability were assessed by oral examination and chewing gum whose color changes based on the mastication performance. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 82.7 (ranged 71 to 101) years and 68.8% of them were female. In the binomial regression analysis, the general network aspect of the network dimension was significantly associated with chewing ability, of which the prevalence ratio was 1.88 (95% CI: 1.16-3.06) in the age, sex, education and marital status-adjusted model. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that social capital, such as a poor social network, is associated with poor chewing ability in the elderly living in rural areas.

Incidence of metabolic syndrome and relative importance of five components as a predictor of metabolic syndrome: 5-year follow-up study in Korea.

The aim of this study was to describe the incidence of metabolic syndrome and to identify five components as metabolic syndrome predictors. The final study included 1,095 subjects enrolled in a rural part of Daegu Metropolitan City, Korea for a cohort study in 2003. Of these, 762 (69.6%) subjects had participated in the repeat survey. During the five-year follow-up, incidence density was significantly higher for women than for men (men, 30.0/1,000 person-years; women, 46.4/1,000 person-years). In both men and women, incidence of metabolic syndrome showed a significant increase with increasing number of metabolic syndrome components at baseline. Compared with individuals presenting none of components at baseline, relative risks were increased 1.22 (men; 95% CI, 0.43-3.51), 2.21 (women; 95% CI, 0.98-4.97) times more for individuals with one component of metabolic syndrome and 5.30 (men; 95% CI, 2.31-12.13), 5.53 (women; 95% CI, 2.78-11.01) times more for those who had two components. In multivariate analysis, the most powerful risk factor for metabolic syndrome was abdominal obesity in men and low HDL-cholesterol in women (adjusted relative risk, 3.28, 2.53, respectively). Consequently, finding a high risk group for metabolic syndrome according to gender and prevention of metabolic syndrome through lifestyle modification are essential.