Latent profiles of active ageing and their association with oral health-related quality of life among rural older adults in China.

BACKGROUND

Active ageing is a key strategy for addressing population ageing; however, the heterogeneous characteristics of active ageing among the rural older adults population have not yet been fully elucidated, and the association between active ageing and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) has not been systematically explored.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 598 rural older adults from April to October 2024. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify active ageing patterns; multinomial logistic regression was used to analyse predictors of category membership; and negative binomial regression was used to analyse the association between latent active ageing categories and OHRQoL.

RESULTS

Four distinct profiles of active ageing were identified: low-level (12.38%), medium-level with low social integration (17.56%), medium-level with low financial security (35.79%), and high-level (34.28%). Profile affiliation was significantly associated with nine factors, including age, educational attainment, and income (all p < 0.05). Negative binomial regression results showed that, with Profile 4 as the reference, Profile 1 (β = 0.581, 95% CI: 0.277-0.885, p < 0.001), Profile 2 (β = 0.561, 95% CI: 0.301-0.821, p < 0.001), and Category 3 (β = 0.480, 95% CI: 0.261-0.698, p < 0.001) all had significantly higher OHIP-14 total scores, suggesting that OHRQoL was more severely impaired in these three groups.

CONCLUSION

The active ageing of rural adults in China exhibits heterogeneous characteristics and shows a significant gradient in oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). Differentiated intervention measures should be developed for different populations, and rural oral health services should be strengthened to improve their quality of life.