Abstract
Background Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) measures have emerged as an important oral health outcome that is able to reveal the subjective burden of illness due to oral diseases.The association between socio-demographic and socio-economic factors, clinical dental conditions and OHRQoL indicators has been investigated in adolescents’ cohorts across the world. The purpose of this study was to investigate key factors associated with oral health-related quality of life of Sri Lankan adolescents. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted amongst a sample of 15-19 year-old secondary school students, Gampaha district, Sri Lanka. The data was collected using two self-administered questionnaires. A modified Sinhalese version of the Oral Impact on Daily Performance (OIDP) questionnaire that has been validated for Sri Lankan adolescents was administered. A second questionnaire collected information on socioeconomic characteristics, oral health care seeking and oral health behaviours. A clinical oral examination was performed on each participant. Oral health related quality of life was measured using OIDP domains and total OIDP scores. Multiple linear regression with stepwise selection was used to investigate the key factors associated with the OIDP additive score. Results A total of 1,332 adolescents participated in the study. Negative quality of life impacts were more prevalent in the social and psychological domain of OIDP as compared with the functional domain. Total OIDP scores ranged from 0 to 36 with a mean of 3.16 (SD=4.71). The multivariate analysis revealed that decayed teeth, presence of anomaly, age, family income, health care seeking pattern and consumption pattern of soft drinks were all significantly associated with higher total OIDP scores, reflecting poorer oral health related quality of life. Frequency of daily tooth brushing was negatively associated with total OIDP scores. ConclusionVarious factors were associated with OHRQoL and could have implications for the improvement of OHRQoL among Sri Lankan adolescents.
Association between chronic periodontitis and oral health-related quality of life in Sri Lankan adults
