Oral health-related quality of life of 12- and 15-year-old Thai children: findings from a national survey

Abstract

Objective: To assess the prevalence and characteristics of oral impacts on daily life, and the relationship between certain dental conditions and impacts attributed to them, in a nationally representative population of Thai school children aged 12 and 15 years.

Methods: A cross-sectional study on a representative sample of children in Sixth Thailand National Oral Health Survey. Sample included half the children aged 12- and 15-year-old selected in Bangkok and all participants in 8 of 16 provinces included in national survey. Children were individually interviewed using the Child-OIDP (12-year-old) and OIDP indices (15-year-old), and two questions for overall subjective assessments.

Results: A total of 1066 12-year-olds and 815 15-year-olds were interviewed. Some 85.2% of 12-year-olds reported experiencing oral impacts during the past 3 months. Child-OIDP scores ranged from 0 to 68.0 (mean = 7.83, SD = 7.8). Eating was the most commonly affected performance (64.4%), followed by cleaning teeth (51.7%) and maintaining emotional state (49.1%). Among 15-year-old children, 83.3% had oral impacts during the past 6 months. OIDP scores ranged from 0 to 39.5 (mean = 5.47, SD = 6.0). The three most commonly affected performances were eating (64.0%), cleaning teeth (55.3%) and maintaining emotional state (53.1%). Toothache and oral ulcers were the two most important perceived causes in 12-year-olds. Impacts from toothache were the most prevalent (39.2%) and had a condition-specific (CS) Child-OIDP score of 7.0, while oral ulcers affected 24.7% of children; mean CS-score of 8.0. Among 15-year-olds, oral ulcers ranked first in terms of both prevalence (36.2%) and CS-score (6.0), followed by toothache (prevalence 33.9% and CS-score 5.0). For both age groups, problems with gums were of less concern.

Conclusions: Oral impacts were common but not severe in Thai children and adolescents. For both age groups, impacts were mostly on eating performance; toothache and oral ulcers were the two important perceived causes reflecting needs for oral health promotion and treatment of dental caries and oral ulcers.