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. 2019 Jul 24;11(1):e1-e12.
doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v11i1.1943.

Systematic review of factors influencing oral health-related quality of life in children in Africa

Yolanda Malele-Kolisa  1 , Veerasamy Yengopal, Jude Igumbor, Cathrine B Nqcobo, Tshakane R D Ralephenya
Affiliations

Systematic review of factors influencing oral health-related quality of life in children in Africa

Yolanda Malele-Kolisa et al. Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med. .

Abstract

Background: Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) is influenced by cultural and societal context. Existing OHRQoL children measurement tools have been conceptualised in high-income countries. Probing whether the factors influencing OHRQoL are context-reliant in the African setting is necessary and is the purpose of the current review.

Aim: To investigate if the factors influencing OHRQoL are context-reliant.

Methods: Seven databases were searched using search terms ('oral health'; and 'quality of life', 'health-related quality of life', 'patient-reported outcomes', 'well-being'; and 'child*', 'adolescents', 'teen*', 'youth'; and 'determinants', 'factors', 'predictors'; and 'oral health quality of life tools/instruments/scales'; and 'Africa*'). Abstracts identified were exported to a reference software manager. Three of the authors used specific selection criteria to review, firstly, 307 abstracts and, secondly, 30 full papers. Data were extracted from these papers using a pre-designed data extraction form, after which quantitative synthesis of data was performed.

Results: Key factors influencing OHRQoL followed an existing conceptual framework where environmental and individual factors in the form of socio-economic status (SES), area of residence and children psyche status, and the presence of any oral condition other than dental caries were reported among child populations in Africa.

Conclusion: There is preliminary evidence to suggest an association between individual factors such as children's psyche and oral problems, excluding dental caries, and environmental determinants such as area of residence and SES in children's OHRQoL in African children. The finding that dental caries was not a key factor in child-oral health is unexpected. There seemed to be a contextual viewpoint underpinning the current OHRQoL frameworks and OHRQoL was context-reliant.

Keywords: Africa; children; factors; oral health; oral health-related quality of life.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
A conceptual framework of health-related quality of life and its determinants.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flowchart depicting the flow of information through different phases.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Forest plot for dental caries and oral health-related quality of life.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Forest plot for oral problems other than dental caries.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Forest plot for socio-economic status.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Forest plot ‘area of resident’ status influencing oral health-related quality of life.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Forest plot for ‘satisfaction with oral health’ and oral health-related quality of life.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Forest plot for ‘dental attendance’ and oral health-related quality of life.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Forest plot for ‘gingival infection’ and oral health-related quality of life.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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