The Research Of Oral Health-related Quality Of Life Among Pregnant Women And Its Related Factors

Objective To investigate the current status of oral health-related quality of life(OHRQo L)and its influential factors among pregnant women in order to provide theoretical basis for designing effective and reasonable oral health education and intervention programs.Method A cross-sectional study design was used.From July to September in 2016,502 pregnant women who visited the Obstetrics Clinic of a local hospital in Wuhan City were conveniently recruited.Five self-reported questionnaires were administrated to collect data on the demographic information,clinical-related characteristics,oral health knowledge and behaviors,self-rated oral symptoms,and Chinese version of Oral Health Impact Profile(OHIP-14).SPSS 22.0 was processed for data analysis.Descriptive statistics of the variables was uesd in terms of frequency of distribution,scores,averages and standard deviation.Mann-Whitney U test,Kruskal-Wallis H test,and Spearman correlation were used to examine the relationships between OHIP-14 and demographic and clinical characteristics,oral health knowledge and behavior,self-perceived oral symptoms.In addition,multiple stepwise regression analysis was conducted to examine the contribution of correlated variables to OHIP-14.Results 1.The score of OHIP-14 among pregnant women was(9.16±7.19).The subscores of four dimensions of OHIP-14 from highest to lowest were: pain and discomfort(3.01±1.95),psychological discomfort(2.15±2.08),physical discomfort(2.12±2.95),and independent ability(1.88±2.44).2.Univariate analysis revealed that age,residence,level of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting,dental anxiety,pregnant complication,oral health knowledge during pregnancy,oral health behavior and self-reported symptoms were the influentials of OHRQo L 3.Multiple linear regression indicated that level of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting,oral self-reported symptoms,awareness rate of oral health knowledge during pregnancy,dental anxiety,oral health behavior and age were the influential factors of OHRQo L,which explained 35.1% of the variance.For the dimension of pain and discomfort,the level of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting,oral self-reported symptoms,oral health knowledge of gestation period and dental anxiety were the influential factors,which explained 25.1% of the variance.For the dimension psychological discomfort,the level of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting,oral self-reported symptoms,dental anxiety,oral health knowledge of gestation period and age were the influential factors,which explained 26.5% of the variance.For the dimension of physical discomfort,the level of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting,oral self-reported symptoms,oral health knowledge of gestation period,oral health behavior and dental anxiety were the influential factors,which explained 29.7% of the variance.For the dimension of independent ability,the level of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting,oral self-reported symptoms,oral health knowledge of gestation period,dental anxiety,pregnant complication,residence and oral health behavior were the influential factors,which explained 25.6% of the variance.Conclusion The current status of OHRQo L among pregnant women is not satisfactory.Pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting,oral self-reported symptoms,oral health knowledge of gestation period,dental anxiety,oral health behavior,and age were the main influential factors of the OHRQo L among pregnant women.In view of the above factors,oral health education and health promotion activities should be planned in order to enhance the awareness of women's oral health during pregnancy,help to cultivate better oral self-care behaviors,and consequently improve their oral health related quality of life.