Structural equation models of oral health status of spouses

Abstract

Objectives: To construct structural equation models (SEMs) to investigate the influences of sociodemographic characters (SDC), smoking habit, oral health knowledge (OHK), oral health attitude (OHA) and oral health behaviours (OHB) on oral health status (OHS) of husbands and wives respectively. Methods: Home visits were made to the selected families. The husbands and wives were asked to complete a questionnaire separately regarding his/her own SDC, smoking habit, OHK, OHA and OHB. Clinical examinations were conducted by one calibrated examiner to assess the OHS of the spouses including oral hygiene, tooth, and periodontal status. SEMs were used to assess the influences of the above variables on OHS of husbands and wives respectively.

Results: 432 families with 359 husbands and 419 wives participated. SEMs showed that in both the husband and wife models, better SDC leaded to better OHK (husband: γ=0.628; wife: γ=0.450, p<0.05) and lower level of daily smoking (husband: γ=-0.487; wife: γ=-0.317, p<0.05). Then, better OHK caused more positive OHA (husband: β=0.261; wife: β=0.327, p<0.05) and OHB (husband: β=-0.639; wife: β=-0.608, p<0.05). In the husband model, husbands with more positive OHB (β=0.500, p<0.05) and did not smoking everyday (β=0.255, p<0.05) had healthier OHS. Therefore, the husbands’ OHS was directly affected by OHB and smoking habit, and indirectly by SDC and OHK. In the wife model, wives’ OHS was only affected by OHB (β=0.600, p<0.05) but not smoking habit (β=0.094, p>0.05). Thus, the wives’ OHS was directly affected by OHB and indirectly by SDC and OHK. The explained variance of the husbands’ and wives’ OHS was 36.6% and 37.9% in the two models respectively.

Conclusions: Results from this study suggest that husbands and wives have similar risk factors (except smoking habit) in affecting their oral health status. (Supported by a CRCG grant (project# 201007176156) from the University of Hong Kong)