Inequalities in Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among children in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Abstract Aim: To examine Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) and their determinants among Saudi Arabian elementary school children. Method: The study's author utilized baseline data from a longitudinal randomized controlled trial conducted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Alayadi et al., 2021). The study participants were elementary school students who attended public schools. A stratified cluster random sampling technique was employed to randomly select sixteen schools from a list provided by the Ministry of Education. The study enlisted individuals who were between six and twelve years of age as participants. The study focused on both primary and permanent teeth. Children with any medical issues were excluded from the study. A total of 1086 individuals were included, and both clinical evaluations and parental questionnaires were used to collect data. The criteria established by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2013) were used in order to evaluate the oral health of the children who took part in the research project. Furthermore, an adapted version of the WHO parental survey was used to gather information about the demographic and socioeconomic attributes (like age, gender, monthly income, and educational background of both parents) and behaviours of the study group. Results: The results of the study revealed significant associations between age and untreated caries with Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) among children in Saudi Arabia. Older children and those with untreated caries had higher rates of experiencing suboptimal oral health outcomes. However, no statistically significant associations were found between gender, family income, parental education, oral hygiene frequency, dental visits, and OHRQoL. Conclusion: We found that Age and Untreated caries were significantly and positively associated with OHRQoL.