Oral health impact on quality of life in an adult Swedish population.
OBJECTIVE
Oral health has a major impact on general quality of life. The aspects of oral health that are most important for each individual vary, and quality of life is a construct and not a measurable variable. The aim of this study was to describe the impact of oral health on quality of life in an adult Swedish population.


METHODS
The study comprised a stratified random sample of 519 individuals. The OHIP-14 questionnaire was used and the answers were rated on a scale of 0-4.


RESULTS
Twenty-one percent of the respondents stated that they had no oral problems related to well-being, and 79% had some form of problem related to quality of life. The mean value for the entire population was 6.4 (SD = 7.1); 5.9 (SD = 7.1) for men and 6.8 (SD = 7.2) for women. Of individuals who stated that they had oral problems, the majority were women aged 20 years. Nineteen percent of 30-year-old men and 53% of 70-year-old women stated that they had had problems that had made life less satisfactory. Individuals who frequently experienced problems related to oral health, with scores of 16-41 points, accounted for 10%.


CONCLUSIONS
In this Swedish population, a number of individuals, young and old, experienced oral problems that had an impact on their well-being.
Einarson
Susanne
S
Department of Natural Science and Biomedicine, School of Health Sciences, Jönköping, Sweden. susanne.einarson@hhj.hj.se
Gerdin
Elisabeth Warnberg
EW
Hugoson
Anders
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D009909:Oral Health; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013548:Sweden; D055815:Young Adult