Oral health related quality of life [OHRQoL] in dental undergraduates

ABSTRACT

The objectives of this study were to assess the Oral Health-Related Quality of Life [OHRQoL] among students in a private Dental Undergraduate School in Lahore. A cross sectional study design was used. One hundred and twenty dental students of years 2 and 3 returned completed forms containing the 14 item Oral Health Impact Profile [OHIP-14]. Old and new batch students of both years were included giving a sum to four batches of students. Data analysis was done using IBM SPSS version 19. The results showed the perceived OHRQoL among students studying in two different stages [year 2 and 3] of the dental course. Age was found to be significant [P < 0.05] with the OHRQoL dimension of 'Physical pain discomfort eating food' [p=0.043] and highly significant [P < 0.01] with the dimensions of 'Physical discomfort poor diet' [p=0.007], 'Psychological Discomfort Selfconsciousness'[p=0.004], 'Functional Limitation: worsened taste'[p=0.007], 'Handicap'[p=0.001] and 'Psychological disability embarrassment'[p=0.001]. Gender was found to be significant with 'Psychological disability embarrassment' [p=0.046] and 'Social disability difficulty in doing job' [p=0.040] and was highly significant with 'Psychological Discomfort Self-consciousness' [p=0.001], 'Functional Limitation: trouble pronouncing words' [p=0.002] and 'Social disability irritability' [p=0.010]. Year of study showed high significance with Psychological discomfort self-consciousness [p=0.002]. The results of this study underscored the relationship between the OHRQoL and age, gender and study year and their impact on OHRQoL among the dental student community. It is essential that students are enlightened with oral health problems and how to overcome them, so that subsequent years of study in a Dental School and the OHRQoL are least affected