Oral Health-related Quality of Life in Czech Population

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the oral health-related quality of life in Czech population. METHODS: Data were collected from 1,380 subjects aged 30 to 69 years attending the Department of Dentistry, Medical Faculty of Charles University in Hradec Králové or attending three private dental practitioners collaborating on the study. Oral health-related quality of life was measured with the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) questionnaire that was translated to Czech. The OHIP-14 scores were assessed in relation to chosen clinical and sociodemographic characteristics and oral health behaviour. Statistical analyses included descriptive analyses, the Mann-Whitney test, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the Kruskal-Wallis test using the NCSS 2007 program. The chi2 test of independence in contingency tables or Fisher's exact test was used for qualitative data. RESULTS: Internal reliability for the 14 items overall was very high (Cronbach's ac = 0.924). The two most frequently scored items using the answer other than "never" during the last year were "painful aching" (62% of subjects) and "uncomfortable to eat" (44.4%), representing subdomain physical pain. The domain of social disability was reported least frequently. The OHIP-14 was significantly associated with dental status, dental behaviour, income and age. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study do suggest that the culturally adapted OHIP-14 version may be a good research instrument to be considered for use in measuring the impact of oral problems on the quality of life in Czech population.