Oral Health Status and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life of Adult Patients at Mathari Hospital Dental Unit, Nairobi City

Abstract

Oral diseases are the most prevalent non-communicable public health problems affecting about 3.58 billion people globally, with dental caries being the most prevalent condition (Oral Health - World Health Organization, 2016). There has also been an increasing burden of oral health conditions in Africa and the Middle East region for over ten years (Abdelatif et al, 2015). In Kenya, the 2015 national oral health survey report indicated that all adult respondents had at least one prevailing dental condition that required attention (Ministry of Health – Unit of Oral Health, 2015). The current oral health care approaches at Mathari Hospital and other public health care settings have emphasized curative oral health care over socio-environmental concerns of dental patients. This was a three months cross-sectional study at the dental unit of Mathari hospital, Nairobi City, Kenya. The broad objective was to assess the oral health conditions and oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) of adult dental patients at Mathari Hospital dental unit and to investigate associations amongst the oral health attributes. The 1997 World Health Organization (WHO) adult oral health assessment form was used to collect data on oral health status while data on OHRQoL was collected by administering short version of Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14). Descriptive statistics were computed. Chi-square test was conducted to test for associations between oral health status variables and attributes of OHRQoL (α = 0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to test the relationship between the individual and collective attributes of oral health status and OHRQoL.249 adults were enrolled into the study translating to 101% response rate. 77 (31%) and 172 (69%) of the respondents were male and female respectively. There was a mean of 5.16±3.56 decayed teeth per person. The mean of missing teeth due to decay per person was 3.56±4.229. The mean of filled teeth per person was 0.33±0.85. The mean decay, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) was 9.04±5.995. DMFT score was contributed to mainly by decayed and missing teeth at 57.02% and 39.34% respectively. Filled teeth contributed 4% to the DMFT score. From the OHIP-14 scale, 140 (56%) of the respondents experienced painful aching in the mouth and found it uncomfortable to eat any foods. 103 (41.4%) respondents experienced unsatisfactory diet, 87 (35.05%) reported psychological discomfort and 36.5% reported physical pain, fairly and very often. The Chi-square test produced a statistically significant association between DMFT and painful aching in the mouth (χ2 = 16.12, p = 0.002, 12 degrees of freedom (d.f). After carrying out multiple linear regression analysis the nine independent variables explained only 14.4% of the variations in oral health related quality of life. However, DMFT was found to be significant (p-value = 0.03). The mean decayed teeth per person of 5.16±3.56 from this study was consistent with 78.2% for a study in Ethiopia on prevalence of dental caries was (Tafere, 2018). DMFT (9.04±5.995) in the study may not have been a reflection of the actual occurrence of dental caries in the neighborhood community, although it shades some light on the oral health status of adults living around the hospital. 36.5% of the respondents in this study reported fairly and very often thresholds for physical pain dimension more than other dimensions in the OHIP-14 scale.