Evaluation of dental caries experience and oral health-related quality of life in schoolchildren

• Autor(a) principal: Eskenazi, Ednalva Maria de Sousa
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Sousa, Karina Guedes de, Agostini, Lucimara Tamaso Pavani, Barbosa, Taís de Souza, Castelo, Paula Midori
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira em Promoção da Saúde
• Texto Completo: https://ojs.unifor.br/RBPS/article/view/3712
• topic: Child; Dental Caries; Quality of Life.; Niño; Caries Dental; Calidad de Vida.; Criança; Cárie Dentária; Qualidade de Vida.

Objective: To assess the relationship between caries experience, oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and socioeconomic factors in children from public municipal schools. Methods: This cross-sectional study was part of an oral health survey conducted during the year of 2012 and included 142 children aged 12 years to assess the OHRQoL using the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ11-14) and the socioeconomic factors (parental education, family income, number of rooms and number of household members). Caries experience was assessed and expressed by DMFT and dmft indexes (number of decayed, missing and filled permanent and deciduous teeth, respectively). Statistical analysis consisted of descriptive statistics, Chi-squared test, Mann-Whitney’s test and Spearman’s correlation test. Results: In all, 58.5% (n=83) of the children had caries experience (DMFT+dmft≥1) and also presented higher scores in the overall perception of oral health (2.6±0.9 x 2.1±0.8), in the total scale (33.0±22.6 x 21.9±14.5) and in the emotional well-being (11.4±8.6 x 6.6±5.8) and social well-being (7.7±8.2 x 4.4±4.9) domains when compared to those without caries experience. It was also noted a significant positive correlation between the number of people living in the household and the DMFT/dmft indexes (r=0.2670, p=0.003). Conclusion: Caries experience was related to a negative perception of oral health – particularly in the emotional and social aspects – and to the number of people living in the household.