Binge drinking and oral health-related quality of life in older adults: Socioeconomic position matters

Binge drinking and oral health-related quality of life in older adults: Socioeconomic position matters
A study investigated whether the association between binge drinking and oral health-related quality of life differs by socioeconomic position in Brazilian older adults.
The authors say that adverse health effects of alcohol consumption disproportionately affect socioeconomically disadvantaged and older individuals. Moreover, measures of binge drinking may capture different domains of the association between alcohol misuse and health that might be independent of the traditional markers of volume or frequency of consumption. Evidence of the association between alcohol use and oral health outcomes has failed to consider binge drinking and possible effect modification by socioeconomic position.
A secondary cross-sectional analysis was conducted using the baseline data from The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2015-2016). Further analysis tested whether the association between past-month binge drinking and higher scores of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) questionnaire differed in magnitude by level of household wealth and educational attainment.
The analytical sample comprised 8,857 individuals. Participants who were from low-wealth households or with lower education and reported past-month binge drinking had 27% (95% CI: 1.16 to 1.39) and 28% (95% CI: 1.18 to 1.40) higher OIDP scores, respectively, than those not binge drinkers from higher socioeconomic position, and super-additive associations were detected for household wealth and educational attainment.
The study concludes that binge drinkers from low socioeconomic position have poorer oral health-related quality of life. Public oral health initiatives aiming to combat binge drinking are likely to disproportionately benefit vulnerable groups, the researchers say.
Source: Oliveira LM, Pelissari TR, Demarco FF, Zanatta FB. Binge drinking and oral health-related quality of life in older adults: Socioeconomic position matters. Gerodontology. 2023 Aug 27.