2.1. Sample

For this study, cross-sectional data were gathered from the most recent fifth wave (2014) of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS), which is a representative study of community-dwelling individuals in the second half of life (≥40 years). The DEAS study is funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ). For instance, data were collected about income, social ties, well-being, and health. Previous waves took place in 1996 (first wave), 2002 (second wave), 2008 (third wave) and 2011 (fourth wave).

In Wave 5, more than 4000 individuals already took part in previous waves (response rate: 61%) and approximately 6000 individuals (birth cohorts 1929 to 1974) were first time participants (response rate: 25%). Moreover, in the fifth wave, 7264 participants provided data on dental visits. Further details with regard to the DEAS study are provided elsewhere [30]. In our study, the fifth wave was used as we were interested in examining the association between SWB and frequent dental visits and the exact number for all dental visits was only reported in this wave.

All subjects provided written informed consent. Please note that an ethical statement for the DEAS study was not necessary because the criteria for the need of an ethical statement were not met (risk for the respondents, lack of information about the aims of the study, examination of patients).

The anonymized data sets of the DEAS are available for secondary analysis. The data have been made available to scientists at universities and research institutes exclusively for scientific purposes. The use of data is subject to written data protection agreements. Microdata of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) are available free of charge to scientific researchers for non-profitable purposes.