Pezza, Gregory Frank2022-04-042022-04-0420082008b29636127https://hdl.handle.net/2144/44160Thesis (MSD)--Boston University, Goldman School of Dental Medicine, 2008 (Dept. of Orthodontics)Includes bibliographic references: leaves 21-22.Objectives: This paper describes an investigation of the effects of periodontal therapy in veterans with poorly controlled diabetes on their satisfaction with diabetes care and self-reported oral-specific and general health related quality of life. Methods: Veterans with poorly controlled diabetes were randomized into two groups: immediate periodontal therapy (n=82) or usual care (therapy delayed for four months, n=83); half of each group continued periodontal therapy for twelve months and the other half was returned to their usual care. Outcomes were the changes in self-reported health measures (score at timex- score at baseline) at four months and one year. Measures included the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (DTSQ: Bradley, 1994); the single-item self-report of oral health (OHl), the Geriatric Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI: Atchison & Dolan, 1990); and the single-item self-report of general health (GH1). We examined means for continuous variables, frequencies for categorical variables, and compared groups by t-tests, chi-square tests, and using logistic regression. Results: After four months, 43% of the treated versus 13% of the usual care group had improvements in OH1 (chi-square=18.1, p[less than]0.001). Other differences were not significant: in the early treatment group there was 1.5 point improvement in DTSQ versus none in the usual care group, t=-1.62, p=0.1. GOHAI mean improvement was 0.32 in the early treatment group, versus -0.38 in the usual treatment group, t=-1.6, p=0.1. GH1 improved 0.2 points in the treated versus none in the usual care group, t=-1.4, p=0.15. No additional differences were evident at twelve months. Conclusions: Periodontal therapy in veterans with poorly-controlled diabetes has an immediate positive effect on patients' oral health and a positive trend towards satisfaction with diabetes care over a twelve month period.en-USThis work is being made available in OpenBU by permission of its author, and is available for research purposes only. All rights are reserved to the author.Diabetes MellitusPatient SatisfactionThesis/Dissertation