Do Oral Health Conditions Adversely Impact Young Adults?

Abstract

This study assessed the extent to which clinically measured oral health conditions, adjusted for sociodemographic and oral health behavior determinants, impact adversely on the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in a sample of Belgian young adults. The null hypothesis was that, among young adults, the oral health conditions would have no impact on their quality of life. The participants were 611 new patients aged 16-32 years seeking consultation at the Saint-Luc University Hospital in Brussels in 2010-2011. The patients (56.0% female) were examined for their oral health conditions and answered a validated questionnaire about sociodemographic and oral health behavior determinants in addition to questions about their OHRQoL. The abridged Oral Health Impact Profile-14 was used to assess the OHRQoL. Interexaminer reliability for caries was 0.86 (95% CI 0.84-0.89, nonweighted κ). The outcome was a high score on the OHRQoL (median split). Hierarchical logistic regression analysis showed that young adults with clinical absolute D₁MFS scores between 9 and 16 (OR = 2.14, p = 0.031) and between 17 and 24 (OR = 3.10, p = 0.003) were significantly more likely to report a high impact on their quality of life than those with lower scores. Also, periodontal conditions compromised significantly (OR = 1.79, p = 0.011) the quality of life of young adults. In conclusion, this study identified oral health conditions with a significant adverse effect on the OHRQoL of young adults. However, the prevalence of young adults reporting impacts on at least 1 performance affected fairly often or very often was limited to 18.7% of the sample.

The impact of caries in combination with periodontitis on oral health‐related quality of life in Bahia, Brazil

“…In the present study of individuals from the Bahia region of northern Brazil, the association was not statistically significant in individuals who presented with only one of the oral conditions (caries or periodontitis). This is in contrast to investigations in other countries and regions that evaluated the impact of these oral conditions on quality of life separately . In these studies, individuals with severe periodontitis reported a greater negative impact on quality of life related to oral health .…”

Clarifying the Impact of Untreated and Treated Dental Caries on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among Adolescents

“…Dental caries is reported to be the main oral health outcome associated with a poorer quality of life among adolescents [Li et al, 2014;Onoriobe et al, 2014;Carvalho et al, 2015;Pulache et al, 2016]. Different methods have been proposed for the measurement of dental caries in epidemiological studies, and the association with OHRQoL is suggested when results are described for individuals with untreated caries (D component of the DMFT index) [Peres et al, 2009;Piovesan et al, 2010;Krisdapong et al, 2013].…”

Dental Caries in European Adults and Senior Citizens 1996–2016: ORCA Saturday Afternoon Symposium in Greifswald, Germany – Part II

“…The appraisal of oral health-related quality of life has increasingly gained attention in observational cross-sectional and longitudinal epidemiological studies [Tsakos et al, 2012;Carvalho et al, 2015]. National oral health surveys such as those carried out in Finland [SuominenTaipale et al, 2008], Spain [Llodra Calvo, 2012], the Netherlands [Schuller et al, 2014], Belgium [Bottenberg et al, 2015], and Portugal [Calado et al, 2015] assessed the impact of oral health conditions on the oral health-related quality of life of their populations.…”