Is Dental Anxiety Associated with Oral Health-Related Quality of Life? Assessment of Statistical Significance and Clinical Meaningfulness in a Sample of Russian Medical and Dental Students.
Dent J (Basel) 2023;
11:260. [PMID:
37999024 PMCID:
PMC10670013 DOI:
10.3390/dj11110260]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Revised: 09/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/27/2023] [Indexed: 11/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Information about oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and dental anxiety (DA) in Russian young adults is scarce. We investigated how DA is associated with OHRQoL in a group of medical and dental students in North-West Russia. The study had a cross-sectional design and included 807 students aged 18-25 years who attended the Northern State Medical University in Arkhangelsk. OHRQoL and DA were measured by the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) and Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS), respectively. A questionnaire collected information on socio-demographics and self-reported oral health (OH) characteristics. A dental examination was executed to assess dental caries and oral hygiene. We observed differences in the OHIP-14 scores between dentally anxious and non-anxious students: unadjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.65, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29-2.12; after adjustment for socio-demographics and clinically assessed OH: IRR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.23-2.02; after adjustment for socio-demographics, clinically assessed OH, and self-reported OH characteristics: IRR = 1.27, 95% CI: 0.99-1.63. The differences between estimated marginal means for the DAS categories in the models were 2.92, 2.51, and 1.24, respectively. Minimal clinically important differences of OHIP-14 fell between 1.68 and 2.51. We found a negative statistical association between DA and OHRQoL in our study sample, but after adjustment for potential confounders, the association lost its clinical importance.
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