Contextual and individual determinants of oral health-related quality of life among adolescents

TL;DR

This study explores factors affecting adolescents' oral health-related quality of life, including individual and contextual influences.

Contribution

The study identifies both individual and contextual determinants of oral health-related quality of life among adolescents.

Findings

Supervised toothbrushing was associated with better oral health-related quality of life.

Adolescents in areas with high emergency dental visits had worse oral health-related quality of life.

Factors like maternal education and untreated dental caries were linked to oral health outcomes.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the factors associated with oral health-related quality of life in adolescents (OHRQoL). Individual data on adolescents were collected from a secondary database. OHRQoL was measured using the oral impact on daily performance (OIDP) scale. Individual- and city-level variables were selected to represent the structural and intermediate determinants of health. The individual covariates analyzed were sex, age, skin color, maternal education, household income, number of people per room in the housing unit, dental attendance, self-perception of dental needs, untreated dental caries, and gingival bleeding. The contextual variables included the allocation factor, the Human Development Index (HDI), Gini coefficient, illiteracy, unemployment, income, average number of emergency dental visits per inhabitant, access to a sanitary sewer system, garbage collection, primary health care coverage, oral health team coverage, and number of tooth extractions between selected dental procedures and supervised toothbrushing. Unadjusted and adjusted multilevel Poisson regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between contextual and individual variables with overall OIDP scores (STATA version 16.0) - rate ratio (RR) and 95%CI. The mean OIDP score was 0.72 and the prevalence was 31.8%. There was an association between supervised toothbrushing average and the outcome (RR 0.95; 95%CI 0.91–0.99). Moreover, adolescents who lived in municipalities with the highest average number of emergency dental visits per inhabitant showed a higher OIDP. Sex, maternal education, untreated dental caries, and gingival bleeding were associated with OIDP. In addition, intersectoral public policies focusing on the reduction of social inequalities should be on the agenda of policymakers and stakeholders.

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