IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i12p6483-d575678.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among Croatian University Students

Author

Listed:
  • Zvonimir Uzarevic

    (Faculty of Education, University of Osijek, 31000 Osijek, Croatia)

  • Ana Bulj

    (Faculty of Education, University of Osijek, 31000 Osijek, Croatia)

Abstract

Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) is utilized in health services research to examine trends in oral health and population-based needs assessment. To determine the impact of oral diseases on everyday life, measures of oral quality of life are needed. In addition to common disease-based measures, they assess the need for oral care to evaluate oral health care programs and treatment management. The aim of this study was to evaluate the OHRQoL among Croatian university students. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 895 students (mean age 22 ± 4 years; 54.75% were females). The data collection was carried out through a self-administered short-form oral health impact profile (OHIP-14) questionnaire which comprises 14 items that describe 7 subscales. Each subscale is named according to its constitutive items: functional limitation, physical pain, psychological discomfort, physical disability, psychological disability, social disability and social handicap. The quality of data was descriptively analysed and internal consistency reliability was assessed by Chronbach’s alpha coefficient. Pearson’s correlation was performed on the OHIP-14 total score and 7 subscale scores. The level of significance was set to p < 0.05. The prevalence of reported impact on OHRQoL was 31.84% and the mean OHIP-14 score was 11.66 ± 8.72. Chronbach’s alpha for the OHIP-14 total score was 0.91 (range for subscales: 0.70–0.87). Total OHIP-14 score was correlated with each of the seven subscales (correlation range: 0.56–0.84). The psychological discomfort and physical pain subscales recorded the highest impact with 56.09% and 24.47%, respectively, while the least impact was recorded in the physical disability subscale with 13.35%. The mean OHIP-14 score of the students in this study reflects that the oral health status of most of the students did not significantly affect their OHRQoL. However, the psychological discomfort and physical pain subscales were the most severely affected aspects of their OHRQoL. The OHIP-14 had reasonable reliability in relation to subjective global oral health indicators among students and thus appears to be a useful OHRQoL measure in this context.

Suggested Citation

  • Zvonimir Uzarevic & Ana Bulj, 2021. "Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among Croatian University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-8, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:12:p:6483-:d:575678
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/12/6483/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/12/6483/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sergei N. Drachev & Tormod Brenn & Tordis A. Trovik, 2018. "Oral Health-Related Quality of Life in Young Adults: A Survey of Russian Undergraduate Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-13, April.
    2. Gift, Helen C. & Atchison, Kathryn A. & Dayton, C. Mitchell, 1997. "Conceptualizing oral health and oral health-related quality of life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 601-608, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bukola G. Olutola & Olalekan A. Ayo-Yusuf, 2012. "Socio-Environmental Factors Associated with Self-Rated Oral Health in South Africa: A Multilevel Effects Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-19, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:12:p:6483-:d:575678. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.