Resilience and its relation to change in the oral health self-perception in independent older people from the southern of Brazil

• Main Author: Bez, Andressa da Silveira
• Publication Date: 2019
• Other Authors: Torres, Luisa Helena do Nascimento, Martins, Aline Blaya, Neves, Matheus, Hugo, Fernando Neves, Hilgert, Juliana Balbinot
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/219262
• topic: Idoso; Estudos longitudinais; Resiliência psicológica; Autoimagem; Saúde bucal; Aged; Longitudinal Studies; Resilience, Psychological; Self Concept; Oral Health

The existing relationship between change in oral health perception and resilience is insufficiently explored in the literature. The aim of this study was to describe the dynamics of changes in self-perception related to oral health (improvement or decline) and to evaluate the determinants of these changes in older people from Carlos Barbosa, southern Brazil. This is a cohort study whereby 587 people aged 60 years or older were evaluated in 2008. The follow-up was made in 2012, when 389 older people were evaluated. Participants completed an oral health and socio-demographic questionnaire (answers were measured on the Resilience Scale), and were submitted to an oral-health exam. The changes of self-perception related to their oral health between 2008 and 2012 were categorized as decrement, stability, and increment. In order to analyze the factors associated with the changes in self-perception related to oral health in independently living older people, a hierarchical analysis was created through multinomial regression. When it came to the change of self-perception related to their oral health, the patients experienced decrement 21.9% of the time, remained stable 48.1% of the time, and experienced increment 30.0% of the time. Access to the oral services (OR=6.00, CI=1.24-28.88) and co-morbidities (OR=3.42, CI=1.08- 10.81) were associated with improvement. Resilience (OR=9.66, CI=1.21-77.08) was associated with the decline in self-perception related to oral health. It was therefore concluded that there is a relationship between the ideas of flexibility and adjustment that is inserted into the concept of resilience and the manner in which an individual perceives his or her oral health.