Page 50 - Petelin, Ana. 2024. Ed. Zdravje delovno aktivnih in starejših odraslih | Health of the Working-Age and Older Adults. Zbornik prispevkov z recenzijo | Proceedings. Koper: University of Primorska Press

education reported difficulties performing daily tasks (χ test=6.491,
2
p=0.039), and dental pain was reported by 19% of adults with primary,
13% with secondary and 9% with at least tertiary education (χ test=6.491,
2
p=0.039). Similar differences in educational status were also found for
limitations in social interactions due to dental appearance. Discussion
and conclusions: OHRQoL is related to socioeconomic factors such as age
and education, but not to gender. The proportion of people who rate their
OHRQoL more negatively is higher among those over 44 years of age and
those with less education. The differences in OHRQoL indicate that older
people and people with less education are more at risk. Understanding
the socioeconomic characteristics of populations with poorer OHRQoL
is crucial for appropriate public health approaches to improve the oral
health of the adult population in Slovenia.

Keywords: quality of life, oral health, oral health care
50
Introduction
zdravje delovno aktivnih in starejših odraslih | health of working-age and older adults
Modern evidence-based references consider oral health as an integral part of
general health. With their chewing, phonation and aesthetic functions, teeth
contribute significantly to a better quality of life and social interaction, and
their functional impairment has an impact on general health (WHO, 2003;
Ranfl et al., 2017; Baiju et al., 2017; Sischo and Broder, 2011). Oral health is there-
fore not only the absence of disease in the oral cavity, but also enables individ-
uals to carry out everyday activities and thus participate in interpersonal rela-
tionships (Baiju et al., 2017).
Various oral health conditions represent a major public health problem
due to their prevalence and their social, economic and psychological conse-
quences at individual and societal levels (Baiju et al., 2017; Johansson and Os-
terberg, 2015). These conditions cause pain and limitations in everyday tasks
such as chewing, speaking and laughing, thus reducing the individual’s quali-
ty of life (Paredes-Rodriguez et al., 2016).
In 1988, Locker introduced the oral health-related quality of life
(OHRQoL) model, which led to the patient’s perspective being incorporated
into treatment (Locker, 1988). This is important because the biomedical view
of health has also been developed into a biopsychosocial model in the field of
oral health. OHRQoL is a concept that can be used to assess the impact of oral
health on a person’s daily life, i.e. self-image, social interactions, education-
al and occupational performance, and more (Sischo and Broder, 2011). The as-
sessment of OHRQoL varies throughout a person’s life and depends on several
factors: Functional ability (chewing, speech), pain and discomfort (acute pain,
chronic pain), psychological factors (satisfaction with appearance, self-image),
and social factors (interpersonal relationships, communication) (Bennadi et
al., 2013). People generally understand their health in a broader sense and not
just as the presence or absence of disease.