# Elderly Oral Health: The relationship between oral health problems, dental care use, medical conditions, and provided medical care

> **NIH NIH R56** · UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE · 2020 · $439,713

## Abstract

Project Summary
The goal of this project is to focus on the relationship between dental use, overall health, comorbidity, and
medical services use. The central hypothesis guiding this study is that dental care use is highly correlated with
better-than-average general health and lower levels of comorbidity and utilization of medical services. We will
test the hypothesis and conduct this study using secondary data available from the Medicare Beneficiary
Survey (MCBS) and Chronic Conditions Warehouse (CCW), Area Health Resources File (AHRF) and the
University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) Health and Retirement Study (HSR). We will also
take advantage of a HRS dental specific module co-developed by members of this research team and the
survey staff at the ISR. This proposed project builds upon and is an extension of several collaborative studies
previously conducted by this research team.
Results obtained from this study will have a high impact on the health and welfare of the Medicare eligible
community population by describing which co-morbid states are associated with the presence of oral diseases,
whether or not preventive treatments are associated with lower levels of those co-morbid states, and whether
or not the use of corrective treatments are associated with amelioration of those co-morbid states in
comparison to the frequency and severity of those co-morbid states among individuals whose oral diseases
are not treated.
Specifically we will:
Aim 1. Estimate the relationship between utilization of dental care services by elderly persons and co-
morbidities over time. The working hypothesis is that elderly persons not using dental care service are more
likely to experience specific co-morbidities compared to those using dental services on a regular basis.
Aim 2. Estimate the relationship between preventive dental care service use, oral health problems, and co-
morbidities over time by elderly persons. The working hypothesis is that elderly persons with regular use of
preventive dental care or without oral health care problems are less likely to experience specific co-morbidities
over time than elderly persons not regularly using preventive dental care or with oral health care issues.
Aim 3. Estimate the relationship between oral disease and co-morbidities over time for elderly persons. The
working hypothesis is that elderly persons with oral disease are more likely over time to experience specific co-
morbidities compared to elderly persons without oral disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10020304
- **Project number:** 5R56AG064782-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE
- **Principal Investigator:** Richard J Manski
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $439,713
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10020304

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10020304, Elderly Oral Health: The relationship between oral health problems, dental care use, medical conditions, and provided medical care (5R56AG064782-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10020304. Licensed CC0.

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