Orofacial Pain Conditions and Impact on Quality of Life in Community-Dwelling Elderly People in Hong Kong

Aims: To determine orofacial pain (OFP) characteristics, associated disability, and effect on quality of life in elderly community-dwelling Chinese people. Methods: A cross-sectional survey involving elderly people registered with the Family Medicine Unit of the University of Hong Kong served as the sampling frame. Elderly people with recent OFP symptoms and a comparison control group without OFP participated. Standard questions were asked about OFP conditions in the previous month and the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and pain-related disability questions were administered prior to a standard clinical examination. Results: Ninety-five people with OFP and 100 people without OFP participated. The median number of pain symptoms per subject was 2.0. Toothache was the most common symptom (58.9%); shooting pain across the face and muscle tenderness were the least common (6.3%). More than half of the pain participants described moderate to severe OFP. The prevalences of patients with neurological/vascular (NV), musculoligamentous/soft tissue (MST), or dentoalveolar (DA) OFP were 35.8%, 33.7%, and 30.5%, respectively. Chronic OFP was common (80%). The mean OHIP-14 summary score was significantly higher in OFP subjects than controls (P .001) and significantly higher in the MST and DA subgroups than in the NV subgroup (P .001). GHQ scores of >= 4, indicating greater psychological distress, were more common in OFP subjects than controls (P .01). Twenty percent of OFP subjects indicated that their conditions interfered with daily life activities, and in 9.9% it affected ability to work. Conclusion: OFP had a substantial detrimental impact on daily life activities, psychological distress level, and quality of life in Chinese elders. MST and DA conditions had the greatest adverse impact on quality of life. Keywords: disability, elderly Chinese, orofacial pain, psychological distress, quality of life