The Longitudinal Association Between Social Factors, Edentulism, and Cluster of Behaviors

Objective: This study aimed to explore the direct relationships between social determinants and behavioral clusters, as well as their potential indirect associations mediated by edentulism. Methods: Information on social variables (collected in Wave 3, 2006/07), edentulism (Wave 5, 2010/11), and health-related behaviors (Wave 7, 2014/15) was drawn from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Baseline sociodemographic characteristics, including age, gender, ethnicity, education, and wealth, were accounted for. Latent class analysis (LCA) was applied to four behavioral indicators-smoking status, alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetable intake, and physical activity-to identify behavioral clusters. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then used to construct a latent variable representing social support and social networks. Two structural equation models (SEM) were developed to examine both the direct associations between social support/network and behavioral clusters, and the indirect associations mediated by edentulism. Results: In LCA, the two-class model was the best fit for the data. Class 1 (risky behaviors) had 7%, while Class 2 (healthy behaviors) had 93%. In SEM Model 1, higher social support/network levels predicted being in the healthy cluster directly (SC = 0.147) and indirectly (SC = 0.009). In Model 2, accounting for wealth and education, higher levels of social support/network maintained the direct association with the healthy cluster (SC = 0.132), but the indirect path lost significance. Conclusions: This study found that greater social support was associated with healthier behaviors, and this relationship may be mediated by edentulism. Health policies that encourage social interaction could therefore improve both general and oral health.