These researchers investigated the dentate status of Māori and non-Māori NZ women with regard to tooth loss, edentulism and denture-wearing; ethnic and sociodemographic disparities were also examined within the sample of 1817 women who were screened for participation in a randomised controlled trial. 164 (9%) women were edentulous and 540 (30.3%) wore a denture (partial or complete). The mean number of teeth present was 24.2, and older women had fewer teeth on average. Socio-demographic and ethnic disparities in tooth loss and edentulism were observed. Māori ethnicity was strongly associated with edentulism and tooth loss, with Māori women nearly six times more likely than NZ European women to be edentulous (odds ratio 5.8). These associations held after controlling for confounding factors of age, education, smoking, diabetes, cardiovascular disease history, and BMI.
