149 The severity of oral dryness and the use of drymouth interventions The association between the use of dry‑mouth interventions, subjective oral dryness and salivary flow rates In Table 6, the significant associations between the dry-mouth interventions and the independent variables were reported for four patient subgroups. Due to the small numbers, it was not possible to perform a binary logistic regression for the RTX, SS + High Med and RTX + High Med patient subgroups. For SS patients, none of the independent variables was significantly associated with any intervention. The UWS flow rate of all patient subgroups did not have an significant association with any intervention, while the CH-SWS or A-SWS flow rates had significant associations with “drinking water”, “rinsing of the mouth” or “drinking coffee”. For Low Med patients, the CH-SWS or A-SWS flow rate was significant associated with more than one intervention, while for controls and High Med patients, the SWS flow rate was associated with only one intervention: “drinking coffeetab” and “drinking water”, respectively. All the associations between salivary flow rates and these interventions had an odds ratio of < 1, except for the controls, indicating that patients with a low CH-SWS or a low A-SWS flow rate are more likely to use these interventions. As controls had an odds ratio > 1 (OR = 5.16) for “drinking coffee” and the salivary flow rate of CH-SWS, this indicates that controls with a low CH-SWS flow rate are less likely to drink coffee. For the total XI scores, Low Med and High Med patients showed an significant association between XI and most of the interventions, except for “drinking coffee”, “drinking small volumes” (Low Med) and “using mouth gel” (High Med). The odds ratio between XI and most of the interventions was > 1, indicating that patients with more severe xerostomia (higher XI scores) are more likely to use these interventions. On the other hand, controls had significant associations between the total XI scores and the interventions “moistening the lips”, “drinking small volumes” and “drinking coffee” only. The odds ratios for these associations were also > 1. As for the RODI score, all eight intra-oral regions had a significant association with 1 or more dry-mouth interventions. An odds ratio of > 1 indicates that patients with a drier intra-oral region (higher RODI score) are more likely to use a specific intervention, while an odds ratio of < 1 indicates patients with a less dry intra-oral region (lower RODI scores) are more likely to use a specific intervention. The anterior tongue and the upper lip had the most significant associations with several interventions. For controls, Low Med and High Med patients, the RODI scores of the anterior tongue were significantly associated with “using a mouth gel”. RODI scores of the upper lip in the three patient subgroups were significantly associated with “drinking water”, “moistening 7
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