Oral health-related quality of life of patients after heart transplantation and those with heart failure is associated with general health-related quality of life: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in patients after heart transplantation (HTx) and those with heart failure (HF). Methods In total, 186 participants (HTx: 104, HF: 82) were recruited from the University Department for Cardiac Surgery, Leipzig Heart Centre, Germany. OHRQoL was assessed with the German short form of the oral health impact profile (OHIP-G14). Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was evaluated using the short form 36 survey (SF-36). Furthermore, the dental and periodontal treatment need was recorded. Results With an OHIP-G14 sum score of 6.58 ± 6.40 [5; 2.5-8] in the HTx group and 5.54 ± 5.47 [5; 2-7] in the HF group, no clinically relevant or statistically significant difference was apparent (p = 0.39). The SF-36 scales for physical functioning, role-physical, general health and vitality were significantly worse in the HF group compared with the HTx group (p i < 0.01). A worse SF-36 physical component summary was significantly associated with a higher OHIP-G14 sum score (HTx: p < 0.01, HF: p = 0.04). In the HTx group, a significant association was also observed for the mental component summary (p < 0.01). Multiple regression analysis revealed physical component summary (p = 0.04) and mental component summary (p < 0.01) in HTx, and physical component summary (p = 0.02), mental component summary (p = 0.02) and smoking (p < 0.01) as significant predictors for OHIP G14 in HF. Conclusion The OHRQoL in HF and HTx patients appears to be mainly associated with general HRQoL. Therefore, multidisciplinary dental care concepts may be recommended to improve oral health conditions in these patients.

Does oral health-related quality of life of patients after solid organ transplantation indicate a response shift? Results of a systematic review

“…The majority of studies (5/7) reported the short form of the "Oral Health Impact Profile" (OHIP 14) [23][24][25][26][27]. One study reported the long form (OHIP 49) [22], one study presented a self-composed "oral health quality score" Fig.…”

“…Two studies each revealed an association and/or correlation between OHRQoL and general health-related quality of life (HRQoL) [21,26], oral health parameters [21,22] or disease-related parameters [22,27]. Three studies reported OHRQoL subscales, whereby different subscales were applied (Table 5) [22,26,27].…”

“…Table 2 summarizes the characteristics of the included examinations. Three studies examined patients after KTx [21,23,27], two examined HTx [22,26] and one study each examined patients after LuTx [24] or LTx [25]. All of the studies were performed in Europe, whereby most investigations took part in Germany.…”

“…The number of included individuals ranged between 39 and 150 participants, with a mean age between 37.90 and 61 years. One study did not include a control group [22], one study included a healthy control group [24], two studies included a control group of patients before SOT [21,26] and three studies included both a healthy control group and individuals before SOT for comparison [23,25,27].…”

“…Oral health examinations were heterogeneous between groups (Table 3). Six studies reported missing or remaining teeth of the patients, whereby the number of missing teeth varied between 3.69 and 9.5 [21,[23][24][25][26][27]. Of note, three studies defined 6 remaining teeth [23][24][25] and one study defined 10 remaining teeth as inclusion criteria [27].…”