Norwegian adults' perceived need for coping skills to adjust to dental and non‐dental life events

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Abstract
Limited attention has been paid to the importance which adults attach to dental, as opposed to other, life events. Consequently, the purpose of the present study was to determine how Norwegian adults rate the need for adjustment to cope with losing teeth or getting dentures, relative to some other life events, and to study effects of age, gender, level of education, place of residence, smoking, drinking and exercise habits. A representative, simple random sample of 400 residents of the County of Hordaland aged 20-69 yr received a mail questionnaire plus one reminder requesting demographic information and completion of a 48-item Social Readjustment Rating Questionnaire (SRRQ) in May 1990. The mean age of the 284 who responded (71%) was 41.1 yr (SD = 13.5 yr). The replies to the SRRQ were given on a graphic rating scale with end points "not difficult at all" (0 cm) and "more difficult than anything" (20 cm). Mean values were calculated and used to rank the life events. "Losing one or more teeth" was ranked 30 (mean = 11.8; SD = 5.6) and "getting dentures" 33 (mean = 13.8; SD = 5.5). "Losing one or more teeth" was on a par with life events like "trouble with other relatives" (mean = 11.7). "Getting dentures" occupied a position between "trouble with wife/husband" (mean = 14.3) and "wife/husband stopping work" (mean = 13.8). Multiple Classification Analysis revealed significant effects of education on "losing one or more teeth"; and of age, sex and education on "getting dentures" (P < 0.05). Furthermore, it was found that these two dental life events required an above average degree of readjustment according to the Social Readjustment Rating Questionnaire.

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