Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jan 18;16(1):19.
doi: 10.1186/s12955-018-0847-5.

The factors that influence oral health-related quality of life in 15-year-old children

Ling Sun  1 , Hai Ming Wong  2 , Colman P J McGrath  3
Affiliations

The factors that influence oral health-related quality of life in 15-year-old children

Ling Sun et al. Health Qual Life Outcomes. .

Abstract

Background: Several hypotheses on factors that influence oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) have been proposed but a consensus has not been reached. This cross-sectional study aimed to analyse the sociodemographic and clinical factors that may influence the OHRQoL of 15-year-old children.

Methods: A representative sample was selected from Hong Kong. Periodontal status and caries were examined according to WHO criteria. Four orthodontic indices were used to assess malocclusion. Child Perception Questionnaire (CPQ11-14, 37 items) including four domains, namely oral symptoms (OS), functional limitations (FL), emotional well-being (EWB), and social well-being (SWB), was used to measure OHRQoL. Adjusted OR was calculated by ordinal logistic regression.

Results: A total of 364 eligible subjects (186 girls, 178 boys) were recruited. The prevalence of caries was higher in girls than in boys (P = 0.013). Compared with girls, boys tended to have a better experience in the domains of EWB, SWB and the total CPQ (adjusted OR = 0.46, 0.59 and 0.61, respectively). Unhealthy periodontal conditions were more prevalent than caries (92.6% vs. 52.7%); moreover, periodontal conditions with CPI scores of 2 had a negative effect on the domain of SWB and the total CPQ (adjusted OR = 1.76 and 1.71, respectively). Only the most severe malocclusion showed an effect on the domain of FL and the total CPQ (adjusted OR = 1.55 and 2.10, respectively). Little effect of family ecosocial factors and caries was found on CPQ scores.

Conclusion: In this study, gender, periodontal status, and malocclusion showed an effect on OHRQoL after adjusting for potential confounders. Boys had less caries and better OHRQoL than girls did. Unhealthy periodontal conditions led to worse social welfares and OHRQoL. The most severe level of malocclusion caused oral functional limitations, hence worse OHRQoL.

Keywords: Caries; Malocclusion; Oral health-related quality of life; Periodontal status; Sociodemographic factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The ethical approval of this study was granted by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Hong Kong/Hospital Authority Hong Kong West Cluster (UW 09-453).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Power M, Bullinger M, Harper A. The World Health Organization WHOQOL-100: tests of the universality of quality of life in 15 different cultural groups worldwide. Health Psychol. 1999;18:495. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.18.5.495. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bennadi D, Reddy C. Oral health related quality of life. J Int Soc Prev Community Dent. 2013;3:1. doi: 10.4103/2231-0762.115700. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Locker D, Slade G. Measuring oral health and quality of life. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina; 1997.
    1. Allison PJ, Locker D, Feine JS. Quality of life: a dynamic construct. Soc Sci Med. 1997;45:221–230. doi: 10.1016/S0277-9536(96)00339-5. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gift HC, Atchison KA. Oral health, health, and health-related quality of life. Med Care. 1995;33:NS57–77. - PubMed