Systematic review of factors influencing oral healthrelated quality of life in children in Africa
Date
2019-07-24
Authors
Kolisa Y
Yengopal V
Igumbor J
Nqcobo C
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Abstract
Background: Oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) is influenced by cultural and
societal context. Existing OHRQoL children measurement tools have been conceptualised in
high-income countries. Probing whether the factors influencing OHRQoL are context-reliant
in the African setting is necessary and is the purpose of the current review.
Aim: To investigate if the factors influencing OHRQoL are context-reliant.
Methods: Seven databases were searched using search terms (‘oral health’; and ‘quality of
life’, ‘health-related quality of life’, ‘patient-reported outcomes’, ‘well-being’; and ‘child*’,
‘adolescents’, ‘teen*’, ‘youth’; and ‘determinants’, ‘factors’, ‘predictors’; and ‘oral health
quality of life tools/instruments/scales’; and ‘Africa*’). Abstracts identified were exported to
a reference software manager. Three of the authors used specific selection criteria to review,
firstly, 307 abstracts and, secondly, 30 full papers. Data were extracted from these papers
using a pre-designed data extraction form, after which quantitative synthesis of data was
performed.
Results: Key factors influencing OHRQoL followed an existing conceptual framework where
environmental and individual factors in the form of socio-economic status (SES), area of
residence and children psyche status, and the presence of any oral condition other than dental
caries were reported among child populations in Africa.
Conclusion: There is preliminary evidence to suggest an association between individual
factors such as children’s psyche and oral problems, excluding dental caries, and environmental
determinants such as area of residence and SES in children’s OHRQoL in African children. The
finding that dental caries was not a key factor in child-oral health is unexpected. There seemed
to be a contextual viewpoint underpinning the current OHRQoL frameworks and OHRQoL
was context-reliant.
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Keywords
Oral Health
Citation
SCOPUS