Temporomandibular dysfunction among working Australian adults and association with workplace effort-reward imbalance

K Hanna; R Nair; J M Armfield; D S Brennan

doi:10.1922/CDH_000051Hanna07

Temporomandibular dysfunction among working Australian adults and association with workplace effort-reward imbalance

Community Dent Health. 2020 Nov 30;37(4):253-259. doi: 10.1922/CDH_000051Hanna07.

Authors

K Hanna¹, R Nair^{1

2}, J M Armfield^{1

3}, D S Brennan¹

Affiliations

¹ Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, Adelaide Dental School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
² Department of Dentistry - Quality and Safety of Oral Healthcare, Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
³ Australian Centre for Precision Health, School of Health Sciences, The University of South Australia, Adelaide. South Australia, Australia.

PMID: 32306565
DOI: 10.1922/CDH_000051Hanna07

Abstract

Objectives: To explore the prevalence of temporomandibular dysfunction (TMD) among working Australian adults and examine whether workplace effort-reward imbalance is associated with TMD.

Method: Data were from Australia's National Survey of Adult Oral Health (NSAOH) 2004-06, a cross-sectional stratified clustered sample of Australian adults. The NSAOH data included information from a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview, self-complete questionnaire and oral epidemiological examination. Data included demographics, socio-economic characteristics, caries experience, diagnostic criteria for TMD, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and a modified version of the Effort-Reward Imbalance instrument (ERI) where ERI ratio is the weighted ratio of workplace effort/reward subscales. Subpopulation analysis for working adults was conducted including complex sample descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models.

Results: NSAOH had 4014 participants with 2329 (65.1%, SE=1.3%) working adults included in the subpopulation analysis. Among working adults, TMD prevalence was 9.4% (SE=1.0%), which was slightly less than population prevalence (PR=9.9%, SE=0.8%), and was higher for females (PR=12.4%, SE=1.4%), people aged ⟨35 years (PR=11.2%, SE=2.2%) and uninsured (PR=11.8%, SE=1.7%). TMD prevalence was associated with the ERI ratio (OR=2.5, 95% CI: 1.3-4.5) and PSS scores (OR=1.1, 95% CI: 1.0-1.09) in bi-variate associations. In multivariable logistic regression, TMD was associated with being female (OR=2.1, 95% CI:1.3-3.6), university qualified (OR=0.43, 95%CI: 0.21-0.88) and with the ERI ratio (OR=2.63, 95% CI: 1.47-4.72).

Conclusion: Greater effort-reward imbalance in the workplace is a psychosocial risk factor for TMD. This finding might need to be considered by clinicians managing TMD patients with need for investigating the efficacy of workplace stress management interventions.

Keywords: Australia; effort-reward imbalance; national survey; temporomandibular dysfunction; work environment factors.

MeSH terms

Adult
Australia / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Reward
Stress, Psychological* / epidemiology
Surveys and Questionnaires
Workplace*