Systemic Health Conditions: African American versus Caucasian Complete Denture Patients

Objectives: This study compared prevalence of systemic health conditions (SHC) and potential explanatory variables between African American (AA) and Caucasian (C) edentulous dental school patients presenting for complete dentures (CD).

Methods: Inclusion criteria included: CD patients presenting 1/1/2010-12/31/2010, aged 20-64, complete data on analysis variables and a racial/ethnic group with >30 individuals; resulting n=88. Variables examined: age, gender, AA/C, employment status, Medicaid status, SHC, smoking history, and alcohol consumption. SHC were defined as having ≥1 of arthritis, asthma, cancer, diabetes, emphysema, hypertension, and stroke. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted for total, AA, and C.

Results: The 88 patients were 44.3%AA, 65.9%≥50yo, 45.5%male, 22.7%employed and 67.0% with SHC. The majority had Medicaid (59.1%) and positive smoking history (59.1%) whereas 20.5% reported alcohol consumption. AA and C differed on age (AA>, p=0.001) and prevalence of SHC (AA>, p=0.011); approached difference on %male (C>, p=0.053), alcohol consumption (C>, p=0.061), and smoking (C>, p=0.086). Patients with SHC differed from non-SHC on age (SHC>, p=0.018) and %male (non-SHC>, p=0.012). Logistic regression for total sample containing all covariates yielded only gender with statistical significance (female>, OR 3.13, 1.09-9.01). Separate models for C showed associations with SHC for females (OR 5.93, 1.30-27.03) and age≥50 (OR 5.36, 1.19-24.08), whereas AA yielded no significant associations with SHC.

Conclusions: Among selected CD patients at an urban dental school, the majority had at least one SHC. While AA had significantly higher prevalence, there were no indicators for SHC found among basic demographics and risk factors for this group, whereas C SHC was associated with being older and female. Small sample size and using existing variables of electronic patient records (including the loss of data due to incomplete records) are limitations of this study. Concerns of high prevalence of SHC in edentulous patients, and health disparities, merit further study.