title: Impact of dental fear on oral health-related quality of life among school going and non-school going children in Udaipur city: A cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the impact of dental fear on different domains of oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among school going and non-school going children in the Indian scenario.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study sample consisted of 279 school children and 257 non-school going children thus making a total sample of 536 children. The sampling frame comprised of 12-15-year-old children attending two upper primary public schools and non-school going children working at shops or not working in Udaipur city, India. Information on dental fear and OHRQoL was obtained by personal interviews by a single trained and calibrated examiner through a structured questionnaire. Intercooled STATA version 9.2 was employed to perform statistical analysis. The level of significance was set at 5%.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean dental fear scores among school going (35.41 [11.79]) and non-school going (47.59 [3.80]) children revealed that dental fear was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher among non-school going than among school going children. In school going children, the likelihood of having poor oral symptoms, functional limitation and poorer social and emotional well being were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) lesser as compared with non-school going children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Fear has a significant impact on different domains of OHRQoL, except emotional well being, among non-school going children.
authors.affiliation: MPH Student, School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Akanksha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goyal
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, Jodhpur Dental College and Hospital, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Ashish
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Departmens of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Tarun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gaur
authors.affiliation: Department Of Orthodontics and Dento Facial Orthopedics, Rayat Bahara Dental College and Hospital, Mohali, Punjab, India.
authors.forename: Jaspal
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Departmens of Orthodontics and Dento Facial Orthopedics, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Yashpal
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pachori
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, Jodhpur Dental College and Hospital, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Kumar Gaurav
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Chhabra
authors.affiliation: Departmens of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Jodhpur Dental College General Hospital, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Chaya
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chhabra
keywords: Dental fear; non-school going; oral health-related quality of life; school going