Marriage protects against temporomandibular joint disorders: A cross-sectional study

The negative impact of psychological factors on temporomandibular disorders (TMD) has attracted widespread attention. However, the association between marriage as an essential psychological influence and TMD has never been reported. The authors sought to examine the correlation between marriage and TMD. We performed a case-control research with 105 adult patients who met the inclusion criteria during the study period and 114 matched controls who were matched to the patients from our hospital. An investigation was conducted using weighted multivariable and logistic regression analyses to examine the autonomous correlation between marriage history and TMD. Additionally, subgroup analysis and interaction testing were conducted. Conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that, in the fully adjusted model, marriage history was associated with a significantly lower risk of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) (OR = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.03-0.65, P = .0126). Gender significantly modified this association (P for interaction = .0017), with married men showing an extremely low prevalence of TMD (OR = 0.00, 95% CI: 0.00-0.07, P = .0001). After marriage, the risk of TMD decreased, reaching its lowest level among individuals with 1 child. However, as the number of children increased, the incidence of TMD gradually rose and could eventually exceed the premarriage level. Subgroup analyses and curve-fitting methods supported this nonlinear relationship between the number of children and TMD risk. Marriage appears to protect against temporomandibular joint disorders, with the lowest risk observed in individuals with 1 child. However, the incidence of TMD increases as the number of children rises. Further studies are needed to explore the factors contributing to the increased risk of TMD following childbearing.