Evaluation of oral health-related quality of life among Sudanese schoolchildren using Child-OIDP inventory

Background: Information on oral health-related quality of life, in addition to clinical measures, is essential for healthcare policy makers to promote oral health resources and address oral health needs. Objectives: This paper aimed at evaluating the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of Child-OIDP, estimating the prevalence, severity and causes of oral impacts on daily performances in 12-year-old public and private school attendees in Khartoum State and to identify socio-demographic and clinical correlates of oral impacts as assessed by the Child-OIDP inventory. Methods: The Child-OIDP questionnaire was translated into Arabic was administered to a representative sample of 1109 schoolchildren in Khartoum state. Clinical measures employed in this study included DMFT index, Gingival index, Plaque index and Dean's index. A food frequency questionnaire was used to study the sugar-sweetened snack consumption. Results: The instrument showed acceptable psychometric properties and is considered as a valid, reliable (Cronbach's alpha 0.73) and practical inventory for use in this population. An impact was reported by 54.6% of the schoolchildren. The highest impact was reported on eating (35.5%) followed by cleaning (28.3%) and the lowest impacts were on speaking (8.6%) and social contact (8.7%). Problems which contributed to all eight impacts were toothache, sensitive teeth, exfoliating teeth, swollen gums and bad breath. Toothache was the most frequently associated cause of almost all impacts in both private and public school attendees. After adjusting for confounders in the 3 multiple variable regression models (whole sample, public and private school attendees), active caries maintained a significant association with the whole sample (OR 2.0 95% CI 1.4-2.6) and public school attendees (OR 3.5 95% CI 2.1-5.6), and higher SES was associated with only public school attendees' Child-OIDP (OR 1.9 95% 1.1-3.1). Conclusion: This study showed that the Arabic version of the Child-OIDP was applicable for use among schoolchildren in Khartoum. Despite the low prevalence of the dental caries pathology (24%), a significant relationship, with an average moderate intensity was found with OHRQoL. Focus in this population should be on oral health education, improving knowledge of the prospective treatment opportunities and provision of such services.