BackgroundAssessing oral health related quality of life impact of mouth in adolescents is a relatively ignored area in dental research. This study aimed to examine reliability and validity of an abbreviated version of the oral impact of daily performance (OIDP) questionnaire and to analyse the interrelationship among OIDP scores, socio-demographic characteristics and oral health status in Uganda.Method1146 adolescents (mean age 15.8, response rate 87%) attending secondary schools in Kampala (urban) and Lira (rural) completed a survey instrument designed to measure subjective oral health indicators including the eight-item OIDP frequency scores. A clinical examination was conducted among 372 students (mean age 16.3, response rate 72%) and caries was assessed following the World Health Organisation criteria (1997).Results62% of the students experienced at least one oral impact during the 6 months preceding the survey. Cronbach's alpha for the OIDP frequency items was 0.91 and the corrected item-total correlation ranged from 0.62 to 0.75. Discriminant and construct validity were demonstrated in that the OIDP scores varied systematically in the expected direction with missing teeth and self-report indicators of oral health status, respectively. Socio-demographics and dental attendance did not predict OIDP through interaction with clinical indicators but varied systematically and independently with OIDP frequency scores in the multivariate analysis.Conclusionthe OIDP frequency score have acceptable psychometric properties in the context of an oral health survey among Ugandan adolescents. Some evidence of the importance of social and personal characteristics in shaping adolescents' responses to oral disorders was provided.

Objectives: To assess factors influencing the distribution of oral manifestations in HIV/AIDS-infected children attending the Paediatric Infectious Disease Clinic in Mulago Hospital, Kampala. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study comprising 237 children (males/females: 113/124) aged 1 to 12 years. The parents/guardians were interviewed to obtain demographic information, oral hygiene practices, dietary habits and health seeking behaviours as well as any medications taken. The children were clinically examined for oral lesions based on World Health Organization criteria with modifications. Results: About 71.7% of the children cleaned their teeth. About 16.9% of the children had visited a dentist since birth, mainly for emergency care. One or more oral lesions were recorded in 73% of the children of whom 19.0% experienced discomfort during oral functions. Cervical lymphadenopathy, oral candidiasis and gingivitis were the most common soft tissue oral lesions: 60.8%, 28.3% and 19.0%, respectively. Except for dental caries, the overall frequency distribution of soft tissue oral lesions was significantly lower in children on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) as compared to their counterparts not on HAART. The prevalence of dental caries in deciduous and permanent dentitions was 42.2% and 11.0%, respectively. Tooth brushing and previous visits to the dentist were indirectly and significantly associated with dental caries. About 5.9% (n=14) of the children had <200 CD3 + CD4 T-lymphocyte cells per μl of blood. Conclusions: The majority of the children had one or more oral lesions, particularly in the group not on HAART. Some of the lesions were associated with discomfort during oral functions. (Eur J Dent 2011;5:291-298)

BackgroundAlthough several studies have shown short term health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), its long term consequences have not been studied extensively in low-income contexts. This study assessed the impact of an EBF promotion initiative for 6 months on early childhood caries (ECC) and breastfeeding duration in children aged 5 years in Mbale, Eastern Uganda.MethodsParticipants were recruited from the Ugandan site of the PROMISE- EBF cluster randomised trial (ClinicalTrials.gov no: NCT00397150). A total of 765 pregnant women from 24 clusters were included in the ratio 1:1 to receive peer counselled promotion of EBF as the intervention or standard of care. At the 5 year follow-up, ECC was recorded under field conditions using the World Health Organization’s decayed missing filled tooth (dmft) index. Adjusted negative binomial and linear regression were used in the analysis.ResultsMean breastfeeding duration in the intervention and control groups (n=417) were 21.8 (CI 20.7–22.9) and 21.3(CI 20.7–21.9) months, respectively. The mean dmft was 1.5 (standard deviation [SD] 2.9) and 1.7 (SD 2.9) in the intervention and control groups, respectively. Corresponding prevalence estimates of ECC were 38% and 41%. Negative binomial regression analysis adjusted for cluster effects and loss-to-follow-up by inverse probability weights (IPW) showed an incidence-rate ratio (IRR) of 0.91 (95% CI 0.65–1.2). Comparing the effect of the trial arm on breastfeeding duration showed a difference in months of 0.48 (-0.72 to 1.7).ConclusionPROMISE EBF trial did not impact on early childhood caries or breastfeeding duration at 5 years of age. This study contributes to the body of evidence that promotion of exclusive breastfeeding does not raise oral health concerns. However, the high burden of caries calls for efforts to improve the oral health condition in this setting.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00397150

The results support the growing recognition of oral health as a predictor of health and well-being in early childhood.