Alexandria, VA, USA – A study aiming to examine the effect of retirement on self-rated oral health and dental services use was presented at the 102nd General Session of the IADR, which was held in conjunction with the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research and the 48th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research, on March 13-16, 2024, in New Orleans, LA, USA.
The abstract, “Effect of Retirement on Self-Rated Oral Health and Dental Services Use: Longitudinal Fixed-Effects Instrumental Variable Study in 31 Countries” was presented during the “Oral Health and Healthy Aging: Pathways and Interventions” Oral Session that took place on Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 8 a.m. Central Standard Time (UTC-6).
The study, by Sebastian-Edgar Baumeister of the University of Münster, Germany, used harmonized panel data from the English Longitudinal Study on Aging (ELSA), Health and Retirement Study (HRS), and the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Data comprised 485,658 observations from 112,240 individuals aged 50 years and older and covering 31 countries. Official and early retirement ages were leveraged as instruments in a fixed-effects instrumental variable approach.
Retirement exhibited a negative effect on self-rated oral health (β = -0.37; 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.44; -0.30) and a positive effect on the propensity to seek dental care (β = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.53; 0.60). Male retirees showed a stronger decrease in self-rated oral health and increase in dental services use than female retirees. Participants who previously worked in a physically demanding job showed a stronger effect on self-rated oral health. Conversely, participants without a physically demanding job in the past exhibited a stronger effect on dental service use. Compared with other health system clusters, effects on dental services use were stronger in the health system clusters of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, Israel, and the United States.
Using a quasi-experimental design, the study concluded that transition to retirement lowers self-rated oral health and increases dental services use. The effects appeared heterogeneous across sexes, type of previous labor, and health systems.
About IADR
The International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (IADR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research for health and well-being worldwide. IADR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit, and private-sector institutions who share our mission. Learn more at www.iadr.org.
About AADOCR
The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to drive dental, oral, and craniofacial research to advance health and well-being. AADOCR represents the individual scientists, clinician-scientists, dental professionals, and students based in academic, government, non-profit, and private-sector institutions who share our mission. AADOCR is the largest division of IADR. Learn more at www.aadocr.org.