Association of changes in income with self-rated oral health and chewing difficulties in adults in Southern Brazil

Abstract

Objective: To assess whether short‐term changes in income (IC) in adulthood were associated with self‐rated oral health (SROH) and chewing difficulties (CD). Methods: Secondary analysis of a longitudinal study in Florianópolis, Southern Brazil (EpiFloripa); a total of 1720 adults participated in 2009 and 1223 in 2012. Logistic regression analysed the variation of SROH and CD according to short‐term changes in income (IC) groups (‘high income‐stable’, ‘increased income’, ‘decreased income’ and ‘low income‐stable’) and adjusted for covariates (age, sex, marital status, skin colour, self‐reported number of teeth and education). Results: After adjusting for covariates, participants in the ‘decreased income’ were more likely to have poor SROH and CD than those at the ‘high income‐stable’ group (OR: 1.78, 95% CI: 1.23, 2.58; OR: 2.76, 95% CI: 1.61, 4.74, respectively). Significant differences were also found between the ‘low income‐stable’ and ‘high income‐stable’ groups, but these differences were explained when adjusted for potential confounders. There were no significant differences in SROH and CD between the ‘increased income’ and the ‘high income‐stable’ groups. Conclusions: Overall, SROH and CD were adversely influenced by negative changes in income during adulthood in a short period of 3 years.