HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Appendix Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Sanders, A.E. Articles by Marcenes, W. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Sanders, A.E. Articles by Marcenes, W.

Does Psychological Stress Mediate Social Deprivation in Tooth Loss?

¹ Institute of Dentistry, Barts and the London, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK;
² Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health (ARCPOH), The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia, 5005; and
³ School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

^* corresponding author, anne.sanders{at}adelaide.edu.au

It is unclear which theoretical dimension of psychological stress affects health status. We hypothesized that both distress and coping mediate the relationship between socio-economic position and tooth loss. Cross-sectional data from 2915 middle-aged adults evaluated retention of < 20 teeth, behaviors, psychological stress, and sociodemographic characteristics. Principal components analysis of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) extracted ’distress’ (a = 0.85) and ’coping’ (a =0.83) factors, consistent with theory. Hierarchical entry of explanatory variables into age- and sex-adjusted logistic regression models estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals [95% CI] for retention of < 20 teeth. Analysis of the separate contributions of distress and coping revealed a significant main effect of coping (OR = 0.7 [95% CI = 0.7–0.8]), but no effect for distress (OR = 1.0 [95% CI = 0.9–1.1]) or for the interaction of coping and distress. Behavior and psychological stress only modestly attenuated socio-economic inequality in retention of < 20 teeth, providing evidence to support a mediating role of coping.

KEY WORDS: psychological stress • tooth loss • mediator • health inequalities • risk behavior