Relationship between food security in household and oral health status

Objectives: To investigate the association between food insecurity and oral health and related behaviors.

Methods: The Population Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 3.1 is a representative, cross-sectional sample of the Canadian population aged 12 and older with 98% coverage of its target population January through December in 2005. It ascertains health status, health care utilization, and health determinants, including food security (n = 100579) and oral health (n=49531). Food security, with a set of 18 questions developed by USDA, indicates whether households were able to afford the food they needed in the previous 12 months. We categorized households into a food insecure group (households in which members felt anxious about running out of food or compromising its quality, or in which members experienced hunger) and a food secure group (households in which members reported minimal or no anxiety about running out of food or compromising its quality, and no hunger in any members). For oral health status, history of toothache, bleeding gums, orofacial pain, and tooth removal, and health behaviors such as regular dental visit and tooth brushing frequency were collected. The analysis accounted for the multistage sampling design of CCHS and found no effect modification.

Results: The prevalence of food insecurity was 4.92%. Compared to the food secure, the food insecure group was more likely to have toothache (odds ratio (OR) 2.82, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.30-3.46), gum bleeding (OR 1.60, CI 1.30-1.98), orofacial pain (OR 2.65, CI 2.23-3.14), tooth removal history (OR 2.58, CI 1.84-3.60), no regular dental visit (OR 1.63, CI 1.38-1.91), no frequent tooth brushing (OR 1.28, CI 1.05-1.57) after accounting for age, sex, education, and household income.

Conclusions: Individuals from households that experienced food insecurity were more likely to have poor oral health status, and less than optimal oral health care than those from other households.