The Relationship Between Pain Perception, Severity of Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction, and Spinal Health in Geriatric Individuals

The research sample will consist of elderly individuals who reside in Tokat and Kırıkkale, are over 65 years old, have good cognitive status, and volunteer to participate in the study. According to the G\*Power analysis, if the sample size is α= 0.05, β= 0.80, acceptable correlation coefficient r= 0.70, and negligible correlation coefficient r= 0.20, 16 individuals are sufficient to measure the relationship between two parameters. Since the relationship between four parameters will be evaluated, 64 individuals are required. Data for the study will be collected face to face by researchers using The Centrality of Pain Scale, Discomfort Intolerance Scale, Spine Functional Index, and Fonseca Anamnestic Index, which can be filled in by individuals themselves. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.0 computer package program for Windows, will be used for statistical analysis. Statistical data will be expressed as mean ± standard deviation (X±SD), median, or percentage (%). One Sample Kolmogorov Smirnov test will be performed to show the parametric or nonparametric distribution of the data. When parametric test assumptions are met, the relationship between parameters is determined by Spearman correlation test; When parametric test assumptions are not met, the relationship between the parameters will be examined with the Pearson correlation test. Statistical significance value will be accepted as p\<0.05.