Poor oral health‐related quality of life among pregnant women: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Objective: High prevalence of Dental and periodontal problems during the gestation period may have a negative effect on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in pregnant women. This systematic review aimed to perform a quality assessment and provide a critical overview of the current research available on OHRQoL in pregnant women. Methods: For this systemic review, all original and peer-reviewed human studies, which investigated OHRQoL of women during pregnancy or post- partum period, were searched. Studies were screened in title and abstract for the relevance by two independent investigators. Methodological quality was assessed using modified items recommended by the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale for observational studies. Results: All of the eight included studies had a cross-sectional design. Meta-analysis was not possible due to the heterogeneity of key aspects among the included studies. Thus, the data from the studies were evaluated qualitatively. The overall risk of bias of the included studies was low. Conclusion: The main conclusion of this review is that the presence of signs and symptoms of dental and gingival disease negatively affects the self-perception of OHRQoL in pregnant women. The most affected domains of OHRQoL in pregnant women were related to mental and psychological discomfort, followed by physical and functional problems.

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Responsiveness of Oral Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaires to Dental Caries Interventions: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Caries Research ◽

10.1159/000500855 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 53 (6) ◽

pp. 585-598 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nicole R. Aimée ◽

Nailê Damé-Teixeira ◽

Luana Severo Alves ◽

Gabriel Á. Borges ◽

Lyndie Foster Page ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Systematic Review ◽

Clinical Trials ◽

Oral Health ◽

Dental Caries ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Health Related Quality ◽

Related Quality ◽

Health Related

This systematic review and meta-analysis were undertaken to assess the responsiveness of validated oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) questionnaires to dental caries interventions in children, adolescents, and young adults. Studies eligible were randomized clinical trials (RCTs), controlled clinical trials (CCTs), and prospective case series (PCS), which had OHRQoL questionnaires answered before and after caries intervention(s). The main outcome was improvement in OHRQoL mean scores following caries intervention. Twenty-six studies were selected for the quality assessment and 14 were selected for the meta-analysis. Most of the studies were PCS with a single group pretest and posttest study design (n = 19). Five studies were CCT and only 2 were RCT. The numbers of participants were 3,522 in the control group (baseline = 2,002; final = 1,520) and 5,917 in the test group (baseline = 3,102; final = 2,815). The age of the subjects ranged from 3 to 19 years. All studies showed significant improvement in OHRQoL following caries intervention. Most of nonrandomized studies (n = 15) had low or moderate risk of bias. The meta-analysis showed the effect of caries interventions (standardized weighted mean differences = –1.24; 95% CI: –1.68 to –0.81; p < 0.001). However, high heterogeneity between the studies was found. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach classiﬁed the quality of evidence as very low and its strength weak. In conclusion, there is evidence that the OHRQoL of children and adolescents improved following caries intervention procedures, but the quality of the evidence was very low. In spite of that, caries interventions are highly recommended as abstaining from treatment is likely to result in a deterioration of OHRQoL.

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