Prevalence and characteristics of orofacial pain in university students

Abstract

This cross-sectional study investigated the characteristics and prevalence of orofacial pain, and its associations with sociodemographic characteristics, in 319 university students: 188 second-year students in the Medical Faculty and 131 students in the Faculty of Technical Sciences at the University of Kosovska Mitrovica. A specially designed questionnaire was used to assess the prevalence and characteristics of pain. Among the 319 students, 101 (32%) reported previous orofacial pain, and pain was more frequent among women (P < 0.05). Logistic regression revealed that gender was an important predictor of pain and that the risk for pain development among women was 1.8 times that among men. Place of residence and relationship status were not associated with frequency of orofacial pain. The regions with the highest pain prevalences were the temporal region (7%; 95% confidence interval, 4-10%) and the region around the eye (6%; 95% confidence interval, 4-9%). The first episode of orofacial pain was less than 3 months previously in 59% of the participants, and 39% of students had sought professional medical help. (J Oral Sci 58, 7-13, 2016)

Evaluation of orofacial pain and psychological comorbidities in health sciences university students

“…Students who were living independently (n = 216, 56.1%) had reported slightly higher OP as compared to those who stayed with their family members (n = 169, 43.9%) however, this was not statistically significant. Similar findings were noticed by Smiljic et al (2016) who concluded that the place of residence and shifting to a new environment will not affect the prevalence of OP among university students [6]. The interesting observation found in our study was that the prevalence of OP among university students was significantly associated with the field of study (p < 0.004).…”

“…The OP was significantly higher in female students as compared to male students. This was in accordance with the studies by Kohlmann et al (2002) [15], Oberoi et al (2014) [9], and Smiljic et al (2016) [6]. In addition, they also had higher duration, frequency, and severity of pain than their counterparts [16].…”

“…Of the 494 students who had completed the questionnaire, a significantly high number of (78%) the students reported to be suffering from OP in the past three months. This was much higher than the study by Smiljic et al (2016) who had reported 32% among university students [6]. Previous studies have reported the prevalence between 17.4% and 55.9% [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] (Tab.…”

“…The present cross-sectional study was conducted on the health sciences students as they are familiar with the terminologies used in the questionnaire and they may have similar responsibilities and behaviors. The earlier investigators have found that the profession of an individual plays a vital role in OP and the most vulnerable groups are students, housewives, and unemployed youth [6].…”

A high prevalence of TMD is related to somatic awareness and pain intensity among healthy dental students

“…Previous studies have reported a prevalence of TMD to 30-50% among dental students [23,24], which is considerably higher when compared to the prevalence in the general population (10%). However, TMD prevalence in dental students is primarily based on self-reported symptoms from questionnaires.…”